By Shane J Alliew
At 104 minutes, Spooks: The Greater Good is merely like an extended BBC series version of one of the television episodes that aired from 2002 to 2011. For those that have been a fan of the spy series, like me, Spooks (the series) known as MI5 in some countries, has always been a favorite.
It has had some kind of edge over the bond films in the sense; it has had more raw emotions, stronger ties, reality checks and less of womanizing; in sum a delight. But Spooks the film falls short of Bond the film series on many a count.
First, the actions, then the thrill, the locales, the sets, so on and so on. But it would be fair to compare a low-budget film like Spooks with a multi-million dollar Bond, or not?
Harry Pearce (Peter Firth) of the television series still heads the counter-terrorism department (Section D) at MI5. The team is transporting much-wanted terrorist Adem Qasim (Elyes Gabel) through London to hand over to the CIA, when the convoy is attacked, allowing Qasim to escape and a CIA operative to be killed.
MI5 is humiliated and the relationships between the Brits and the Americans turn sour. Harry sees this as an opportunity of him being sacked (as the eventual scapegoat); he has also been missing Ruth Evershead (Nicola Walker) (killed in action, in the television series) and hence jumps off Lambeth bridge into the Thames.
But wait, is it so? Well, at one guess you should have known, spies work best when they have been assumed dead. For Harry needs to know: how did the information leak out that Qasim was being transferred? It had to darn be an insider, but who?
When one is in the spy business one knows that not even one’s shadow can be trusted, leave alone colleagues, co-workers and least of all your bosses!
Harry does find Qasim, and what he offers the terrorist is too great an offer to resist- a much celebrated head to ignore, in return for the information of who has been masterminding the entire plot, using MI5 agents as mere pawns.
But Qasim too wants his pound of flesh, which Harry uses to his advantage- Qasim’s wife. But what does one do with the body of a dead wife? Trust the damn Russians to goof things up- if they can’t have it their way, they will not have it anyways!
When almost it seems that it will backfire, yet the twists in the plot draw you into a vortex of action, letting you know that it’s not over as yet!
That’s what I most like about spy thrillers, never a dull moment, but sometimes it can be overdone- like in Spooks the film. That’s what I meant when I said it could have passed as an extended version of one of the television series.
I strongly believe that no one could play Harry better than Peter Firth, just like no one would have done justice to Sherlock than Cumberbatch. Some men are just created for the roles of their life time.
Who emerges as the actual villain at the end of the film is kind of shocking and I suppose that’s what a spy thriller is all about. But we would rather have more of Spooks the series than another film in the franchise.
An entertainer but worth the go just one, Spooks offers nothing new but an average watch.
Rating by Shane: 2.5/5