Hey, Pinewood Films, I know your game. Advertise a 'special advance screening' of the new Spooks film, The Greater Good, in order to generate word of mouth for a relatively low budget British production, based on an old TV series. The opening weekend gross is what counts, of course, especially with under the Radar ones like Greater Good and, since it opens nationwide on May 8th, it seems Pinewood want to make sure this one does as well as possible by getting people talking with an early screening.
As a Spooks fan, it's a welcome opportunity to see Greater Good before it goes on general release (I probably would've waited for the DVD otherwise). As a film fan, it's a rare chance to see one before most people - not that Greater Good is likely to draw huge crowds.
It was also great to go straight into the film and not have to sit through the usual adverts and trailers I've already seen. With a standard cinema ticket costing nearly a tenner, why can't all screenings be like this? I think films would do a lot better if people, having paid that much, did not have to endure commercials being forced down their throats, along with trailers for films they weren't intending to watch anyway or were intending to and don't need to see a trailer for because, if they're nerds like me, they've already watched them online too many times.
Anyway, Greater Good appears to have been cannily released to carefully avoid any of this year's competition from more established spy franchises, like Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation or SPECTRE, as well as summer blockbusters altogether. Greater Good's promotion rather unfairly draws comparisons with two other action film series with the poster tagline 'Mission: Impossible meets Bourne', which is obviously intended to draw fans of better known franchises. The show aired from 2002 to 2011, which is kind of ancient history in TV terms and it is not very fresh in people's minds. Yet, the tag sounds like a writer's pitch to a producer and feels odd to a fan of the TV show, as I am, who knows that, whilst the series often aimed for a cinematic feel, it's not really like either of those but does share some common ground - action, terrorism, double-crosses. That tagline takes some of Spooks' own identity away, making Greater Good sound to the uninitiated like it's a British knock-off of those films, whereas the TV programme predates Bourne and the second and third M:I films by some years.
Spooks' unique angle, though, is that it is about MI5 (that's Ministry of Intelligence, not Mission: Impossible, as I'm sure you knew) - UK homeland security. Bharat Nalluri, Director of the first and last episodes of Spooks on TV, returns to keep alive the series' signature approach of handling foreign terrorist threats on UK soil, where ordinary lives are at stake, whilst also showing the personal cost that defending the realm has on MI5 agents. The film takes the established conventions and satisfyingly broadens the scope for a cinema audience. There is some globe-trotting to Russia and Germany in Greater Good but these places look less glamorous than they would in Mission: Impossible or possibly Bourne and the film doesn't spend long in either. Spooks, similar to Bourne, is also pretty believable, set as it is in a world much like our own. Also, there are no gadgets or gimmicks; the Spooks must rely on existing tech, as well as their wits, training and each other, to get the job done.
There are lots of cool aerial shots of the Big Smoke, adding to the air of threat established by the escape of terrorist, Adem Qasim (Elyes Gabel). If only they hadn't redesigned The Grid (MI5's centre of operations) - now complete with ghastly new lime green chairs around a less shinier conference table than before. Although the room these are in is the setting for one of the film's best scenes. Happily, I think some of those chairs got damaged and so will need replacing for the potential next film. Sadly, those cool swishy doors have gone, too. The theme music is present, although not during the opening titles, which has sombre music as we hear news reports regarding Qasim. I thought it was clever how someone says 'BBC' as the very same letters appear in the titles. Nice.
At the centre of it all, as ever, is Harry Pearce, played, of course, by the excellent Peter Firth. The one character who so often seemed liable to fall to the Spooks curse of being shockingly killed off but, being such a great character, we all knew never would be, returns to Britain's aid once more. The sudden, tragic death of a main character is another series trademark (or cliche) the film stays true to and there are a few returning faces from the show, who do not all make it to the end.
Seeing Harry Pearce - the UK's head Spook - and another series stalwart indulging in a spot of espionage in a grotty London internet cafe is a hoot. In order to complete the highly illegal operation Harry is having him do, the stalwart says he must 'steal more bandwidth' from the London boroughs, resulting in the cafe's other PC's (the cafe's not upgraded to Macs, yet) going haywire, leaving their users perplexed. My IT expert friend, with whom I was watching the film, pointed out, 'the internet doesn't work like that', although the more realistic frozen screens and the little digital hourglass is less visually interesting than the monitors frantically blinking and flashing.
It's great to see Harry Pearce back in action once again. I only miss his old habit of holding a mobile phone with one hand to the opposite ear, as if covering his mouth from anyone attempting to lipread it. Here, he just turns away from someone spying on him whilst he's making a call.
Qasim is a dependable, if not exactly striking, villain in the same mould as those of the series - the villains look like everyday people but with radicalised beliefs and some inner pain which they feel the need to take out on Western society. Qasim's methods are brutal but he's not a particularly interesting character, although one can sympathise with why he acts the way he does.
Greater Good doesn't require you to have seen the TV show to understand and enjoy it, although I liked it more for having been a fan. The story is typical of the series, involving Qasim's attempts to bring civil disorder to the UK using big bangs, with our heroes out to prevent him. Will Holloway (Kit Harington) is the former MI5 agent re-recruited by Harry to help him deal with the terrorist whom he allowed to escape.
Holloway is in no way in danger of becoming a new Bond, Bourne or Ethan Hunt. He looks more like a permanently depressed, tattoo-less Russell Brand as he mopes for his dead father and drops f-bombs on Harry Pearce - the next best thing Will now has to a father. Harington is good as the latest strapping young lad taking down the villains at Harry's command. It's just a shame there is no romance between him and either Tuppence Middleton's MI5 agent June or Eleanor Matsuura's Hannah Santo (whom I think worked for GCHQ?) It's somewhat refreshing that the story sticks to business, though. It might have been a bit cliche to have the hero getting fresh with the ladies…or gents. I detected a slight frisson between Will and June, however.
Harry is once again annoying his superiors, played by the great and the good of British TV, including Tim McInnerny as MI5 Director General, Mace (Darling from Blackadder) and Pride and Prejudice's Jennifer Ehle as snooty MI5 Deputy Director, Geraldine Maltby, whose accent confused me. It's two parts the cut-glass English vowels of Lizzy Bennet and one part American. IMDb informs me Ehle was born in North Carolina, so that explains that one…and has bearing on her role in Greater Good.
One could do a lot worse than Spooks: The Greater Good. It's exciting, shocking and cinematic, expanding on what made the TV show great but, unless you're a big Spooks fan, I would recommend waiting for the DVD.
Images: 'Spooks: The Greater Good' Facebook page.
