Spies in Disguise, 2019.
Directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane.
Starring Will Smith, Tom Holland, Ben Mendelsohn, Rashida Jones, Karen Gillan, Reba McEntire and DJ Khaled.
SYNOPSIS:
A top spy is transformed into a pigeon and stuck in the avian form after a trial of new concealment technology goes awry.
This Christmas, cinema has provided an embarrassment of riches. There’s a new adaptation of Little Women, the epic ultra-blockbuster Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and, of course, James Corden as a terrifying humanoid feline in Cats. To that list, you can add Will Smith as a pigeon spy in Spies in Disguise. Sadly, that logline is the most interesting thing about the film.
The spy in question is Will Smith’s Bond-like Lance Sterling, for whom everything always goes right in the field. He’s the best spy in the world. However, he is framed for a crime against the spy agency involving a potentially killer drone and, as a result, he must disguise himself in order to evade capture and take down mechanical-handed villain Killian (Ben Mendelsohn). He turns to the assistance of gadget whizz kid Walter Beckett (Tom Holland), who is trialling a new method of “bio-dynamic concealment”. Soon, Lance is in the body of a pigeon, neutralising much of his very particular set of skills.
It’s fair to say that the premise of this is a lot of fun and, thanks to Ice Age studio Blue Sky, the animation is colourful and peppy, if a little overtly digital and soulless. Unfortunately, there’s very little heart and energy in this beyond that central idea, which seems to have been the only concept that differentiates this from every other animated movie. The zippy action looks passé in the wake of the far superior Big Hero 6 and, most notably, last year’s visually masterful Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
The plot is generic conspiracy thriller stuff, right up to the inclusion of the villainous Killian – more often referred to simply as “Robo-Hand” due to his Doc Ock-like metal claw. He benefits somewhat from baddie extraordinaire Mendelsohn adding every malevolent rasp possible to his Aussie twang, but his plot makes little sense and is indistinguishable from that of many other recent big screen evil folk. He also has some plot-unecessary facial scarring as well, to complete the set of clichés. It’s probably meant as Bond parody, but that field is so over-played at this point that it’s rather difficult to tell.
Holland and Smith do their best to inject their innate charisma into the movie, but there’s so little wit or spark to Brad Copeland and Lloyd Taylor’s script that they’re largely left with very little to play on. They’re pursued by a trio of agency operatives played by Rashida Jones, Karen Gillan and, bizarrely, DJ Khaled – surely a group of actors everyone has been dreaming of pulling together for years. It’s a talented, if unusual cast, with nothing to do but work their way through the beats of a standard family movie narrative.
It seems remarkable to argue that a film in which Will Smith voices a superspy who turns into a pigeon is boring, but it really is. Once the initial fun of that premise has been milked, the movie simply runs completely dry on the ideas front and just settles into the groove of the standard kiddie blockbuster. With so much talent and potential for fun on the table, it’s a real disappointment.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.
