Dua Lipa and Henry Cavill in Argylle (Universal/Apple)

Matthew Vaughn is clearly a fan of spy movies. His “Kingsman” films, both good and bad, are passionate homages to James Bond. When briefly given the reins to the “X-Men” franchise, Vaughn imbued X-Men: First Class with plenty of nods to Bond and Cold War thrillers. But while that love is still present in his latest film, Argylle, Vaughn’s direction is all over the map. It’s a film high on action and absurdity, but at the expense of not fully unlocking a tone that balances out the spy world/real-world dynamics that Kingsman: The Secret Service pulled off close to a decade ago.

It starts about as cliché-fashioned as an espionage mission can get. Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill), all chiseled and flat-topped in the hair department, corners a femme fatale (played by Dua Lipa) in a club, only for all hell to break loose. There are shootouts, an over-the-top car vs. motorcycle chase, John Cena as Argylle’s hacker companion, and plot twists about the inner mechanisms of the agency he serves. Then the film pulls back to reveal this story as a live-reading of the latest hit “Argylle” novel by author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard). Argylle’s story is as far from Elly’s life as possible—she prefers to write in peace in a cabin with her feline companion, Alfie, and receive story feedback from her mother, Ruth (Catherine O’Hara). And that’s how she likes it.

Unfortunately, a bad case of writer’s block prevents Elly from closing out her manuscript on Argylle’s final book. She attempts to solve this problem by hopping on a train and visiting family, only for a spy named Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell) to save her life from operatives of the top-secret syndicate known as the Division. As it turns out, the Division’s leader, Ritter (Bryan Cranston), has a special interest in Elly, as her books somehow managed to predict real-life geopolitics. Whatever’s going in her head, therefore, is the key to the Division’s ulterior agenda, thus sending Elly and Aidan off on a globetrotting hunt for the MacGuffin capable of taking down the Division for good. Complete with a steady stream of cat reaction shots in between action set pieces, some more noticeably CGI’d than others.

Much has been made about the big “don’t let the cat out of the bag” mystery at the heart of Argylle. But in truth, that reveal is teased from the moment we first meet Elly and isn’t that big a surprise, though it’s not the only twist up Vaughn’s sleeve. To the movie’s credit, there are a handful of moments that will make your jaw drop at the scale of the absurdist conspiracy and where everyone’s loyalties lie. It just comes at the expense of a cohesiveness that makes the film a bit too goofy for its own good.

At least the cast recognizes the goofiness and is game for it. This is an A-list ensemble, and you can tell everyone is having some degree of fun, whether it’s Rockwell breaking out spontaneous dance moves or Cavill embracing a deadpan caricature of Daniel Craig’s Bond persona. Even in brief cameos, Samuel L. Jackson, Sofia Boutella, and Ariana DeBose know the assignment, even if they don’t get that much to do. It’s that silliness that gives Argylle some energy even when it falters.

This is very much reflected in the action. Vaughn is not one to repeat the same choreography twice, and Argylle goes all out in making its spy-on-goon fights unique. Yet for all these fights’ creativity—particularly an opening train brawl involving Aidan and Argylle—they are too frequently broken up by off-kilter CGI effects that disrupt any semblance of realism in the film. At one point, Elly partakes in what can only be described (without spoilers) as an extremely violent figure skating beatdown. It’s ridiculous in a cool way, but you can see that the lead actor isn’t fully performing the stunt, and that takes away some of the fun factor.

Argylle certainly has personality (and cats). Although as a meta-comedy, it ironically makes its real-world hijinks feel too absurd even compared to the genre it’s riffing on. Perhaps Vaughn will find the right balance in time, given his stated interest in creating more prequels about Argylle’s early spy career. Given the film’s poor box office numbers, however, it remains to be seen if, like a certain cat, Argylle’s future as an original franchise has nine lives.