Spooks - The Greater Good

I will admit I had high hopes for this film. Ok wait let me back up for a minute. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a rabid Game of Thrones fan. A massive fan and consumer and I am a proud House of Stark supporter, Kit Harington is my new love affair. The boy is gorgeous with a capital G. I mean that silent smoulder and dark curly hair, excuse me while I find a fire extinguisher for my ovaries. Glued to my TV every Sunday at 9pm (yes I’m an American) I watched him grow from the awkward bastard son of the Warden of the North, to the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch. It’s been a glorious five seasons I have to say. I went into Spooks expecting the Harington touch. I waited for it; I yearned for it. Finally I had to give up hope and just pray for a quick death. Death evaded me for 104 minutes.

The United Kingdom for the better part of my life has been dominating the box office with spy movies. There is no movie icon dead or alive that does spy like James Bond. The man revolutionized a cocktail with a cocky smile for Pete’s sake. When I go to see a spy movie in the United Kingdom I am expecting the Earth to move. I am expecting the sky to crack and God caress me gently on the face. I am not expecting the main character to blunder around from one disaster to another because of daddy issues.

This movie started circling the bowl almost at the onset. MI5 is coordinating the handoff of a high profile terrorist to the CIA. While sitting in traffic, central command for the operation notices several fast moving motorcycles heading toward the caravan. Now I might just be a trigger happy American, but the last time I checked when officers feel threatened they are trained to protect themselves and the mission, but these highly trained operative just sit in their cars whistling Dixie and waiting for traffic to let up. Forgive me but I didn’t know this movie was a one-way ticket to Wonderland. I thought this was a spy movie, not a fantasy thriller. It didn’t get better from there. If anything I wished it was one of those movies that’s so bad its actually good if you watch it long enough. Spooks is not Big Trouble in Little China. It’s more like Glitter and Waterworld. A mistake for everyone involved.

Since the War on Terrorism commenced scriptwriters and directors have found an untapped villain resource. I can’t fault them for falling into that trap, but I can call them on their BS with lazy writing. Elyes Gabel put in a command performance as the villain, but I just didn’t believe his motivation. I will give him kudos for shooting an unarmed and bound woman in the stomach. I believed that.

Kit’s character was like a newly birthed baby horse. Stumbling around the world hoping someone will take pity and point you in the direction of your mother’s teat. He believed everything everyone told him. HE IS A SPY!! PEOPLE LIE! After the fourth time he got burned by a person that was supposed to be a friend I gave up. Bella Swan in Twilight had more of a backbone and she was going to jump off a cliff because her boyfriend dumped her.

If this movie is any indication of the sort of operatives MI5 churns out I’m going to need Sean Connery to show them a thing or two about spying, and great one-liners. This movie was in desperate need of a great tagline.

Spook had no idea what sort of movie it wanted to be. Did Spooks want to be a proper spy movie, a straight thriller, or just a plain action movie? It was more confused than a virgin on their wedding night. Nothing it did worked out and in the end the audience was left wondering how the hell this movie went from concept to screen time.

Save your money on this one folks and be content to drool over Kit on Game of Thrones