Spooks: The Greater Good (2015)
“You know nothing, Jon Snow.”
Those are words that Kit Harrington will hear for the rest of his life. Similar to how Arnie will have poor accented folk gurning “I’ll be back” at him whenever he ventures out into the streets or, and I’m sure of this, Anthony Hopkins is stuck with people wagging their tongues at him.
Since Game of Thrones, one of the most popular series on television right now, Jon Snow has been an icon, right up until he - spoiler alert - snuffs it (or does he?) Naturally, he is going to get many people spouting out his immortal (or not so immortal) line. Hopefully, with many new ventures, particularly cinematic ones, such as Testament of Youth, How To Train Your Dragon 2, and this film Spooks: The Greater Good.
Yes. Ham-handed Segue I Know. I could have spoken about Spooks.
Damn, I should’ve spoken about Spooks.
Spooks was a television series back in the nineties and early noughties that catapulted the careers of David Oweyolo and Lara Pulver. Decades from its first conception, it gets a cinematic outing. This time, it’s personal. Anyway. Spooks; The Greater Good revolves around Adam Qasim, a “charismatic terrorist” who escapes from MI5 custody and the head of the Counter-Terrorism Unit, Harry Pearce, gets blamed for it. Forced to resign, it all gets a little bit more sinister when Harry disappears completely. Will Holloway is brought in and as they head to Moscow, they figure out there was someone on the inside, trying to destroy the operation.
Why is it Bad?
Well, when I was a child the television series was gripping, thrilling, and full of intellectual jargon that I couldn’t wrap my tiny brain around. Flash forward to a grumpy 26 year old trying to watch this wrapped inside a blanket and, as it turns out, the film just couldn’t capture those elements. Frankly, the biggest problem is that it tries too hard with a simplistic method making it bewildering when it should be straight forward. If it was going to be complex, maybe a deeper tryst with double-crossing agents that actually is a guessing game and not obvious from the opening sequence, then Harry and Will’s rampage through the globe would be interesting. Instead, it flaps its gums about terrorism and some sort of politics about MI5 without a strong coherent narrative to back it up. It’s also wildly clichéd. In fact, part of Harry and Will’s history comes straight from Kingsman: The Secret Service. A better spy film.
Quiet frankly - it’s really dull. And one could fall asleep for a good chunk and wake up having not missed a thing. Not that one did, you see.
Why is it Good?
Kit Harrington is dreamy. Ok. Beyond his flowing locks and beautiful face, Harrington has enough acting muscle to portray angsty Will Holloway with a chip on his shoulder and Peter Firth slides into his usual role as the puffed out, one-faced Harry. The tension works well together for part of the movie. Supporting actors such as Jennifer Ehle, Lara Pulver, and Tim McInnery so splendidly as a team. Added to this, the action sequences are kind of good and flow into one another with a slick, espionage feel. It’s also good to see London in the scrum of it and
Fullfilling its destiny as an average Saturday night flick, Spooks: The Greater Good is nothing more than a Saturday night television series double bill.
Which effectively this is.