Writer: Jonathan Brackley, Sam Vincent (Screenplay)
Starring: Kit Harington, Peter Firth, Jennifer Ehle, David Harewood, Lara Pulver, Tim McInnerny, Tuppence Middleton
Plot: When a terrorist escapes custody during a routine handover, Will Holloway must team with disgraced MI5 Intelligence Chief Harry Pearce to track him down before an imminent terrorist attack on London.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Should Have Stayed on TV
Story: Spooks: The Greater Good starts when Harry Pearce (Firth) must make the impossible decision to release a known terrorist Hamza Ahmadi (Mallassi) to rescue civilians, this shows massive failure on behalf of MI5.
When Harry goes missing Geraldine Maltby (Ehle), Oliver Mace (McInnerny) and Francis Warrender (Harewood) bring in former spy Will Holloway (Harington) to locate him after he has faked his own disappearance.
Will finds himself playing the middle man working for Harry but under MI5 to work an operation to stop the terrorist from taking London into his own terror target.
Thoughts on Spooks: The Greater Good
Characters/Performance – Will being the lead character is the guy who clearly wasn’t meant to be an agent because he is filled with terrible decisions. Harry does come from the TV version so I think if you wanted the show you would understand more but in this he just comes off shady. The rest of the characters do all come off feeling like generic spy TV show character.
Performance wise Harington does well but never reaches the performance levels that Keifer Sutherland, Matt Damon or any of the Bond actors give us. Peter Firth is fine but you can see he is better for TV than film.
Story – The story feels like a poor version of an episode of 24, because if you haven’t seen the TV show you wouldn’t know the bigger picture going on. This story feels all over the place because the story never reaches the intensity level needed for a film of this subject. It also drags in most places as you just lose interest in what is going on.
Action/Thriller – The action is simple and never tests with the thrilling side of the story not reaching any strong levels in the film.
Settings – London should be a great setting but everything happens too conventionally for how the story end up unfolding.
Special Effects – We have few and they are fine without being a CGI heavy film.
Final Thoughts – If you want to see this film watch the show first you might understand it more or just watch 24 because it works in my opinion on a better level.
Overall: Slow, confusing and just not reaching the levels it should.
Rating