British TV show Spooks managed to thrill audiences for ten series with its tales of MI5 spies. It was doing the whole anyone-can-die twists way before The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones came along. Earlier this year the show made the leap to the big screen but was it a successful move?
Set some years after the tv show ended Harry Perce (Peter Firth), the head of MI5 counter terrorism department goes rogue just after a terrorist Adem Qasim (Elyes Gabel) escapes from custody. In order to find out what Harry is up to former MI5 agent Will Holloway (Kit Harington) is brought back in to find out the truth. However Will soon finds himself in web of lies and intrigue.
Ever since Lisa Faulkner had her head dunked in a deep fat fryer Spooks has constantly been surprising its audience and no character has ever felt safe as has been proven over the years. But with Harry the only major character brought back from the show there’s not many people to care about. The new characters introduced in the The Greater Good are barely fleshed out so there’s no concern over any impending deaths or betrayals. Kit Harrington is so good in Game of Thrones but as Will is so boring, not helped by uninspiring authority issues and an unresolved grudge against Harry.
In a year which has already had Mission Impossible:Rogue Nation and will soon see Spectre on the screens, Spooks:The Greater Good just feels like a poor relation in the spy genre. The climax of the movie and the end revelations feel a bit underwhelming whereas the tv show was great at reveals and unexpected twists.
In spite of it’s failing there are some good aspects. Firth is reliably good as Harry, the only person the audience will care about in this movie (although if you haven’t seen the series you might not be feeling that as much). Gabel is also appropriately menacing as Qasim even if the character is a bit of a cliché. Qasim’s escape at the beginning of the movie is also well executed. Still I doubt Spooks will have Bond quaking in his boots.
Rating 2/5 – a missed opportunity to bring Spooks to the big screen
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