Spooks: The Greater Good

Kit Harrington has no sword. He also appears to know nothing. Worth a look.

A kind of dull, extended episode of spooks. Which was a kind of dull series of shortened James Bond wannabe TV episodes.

Nonsense, but enjoyable nonsense.

I'm another one that's never seen the Spooks (2002-2011) TV-series, so any references made to that show during this would be lost on me. But as a MI5 chaos thriller Spooks: The Greater Good (2015) is messy excitement where you never know who is screwing who. Tim McInnerny, Eleanor Matsuura, Tuppence Middleton and especially Peter Firth add greatly to the overly complicated story structure and make the time fly by.

It was alright

Spooks: The Greater Good is a nice entry into the action-spy genre this year - it is no where near as good as Kingsman but it is definitely not terrible either. Harington is brilliant and is supported well by Matsuura, Middleton and Firth. Tense atmospheres are sometimes failed to be created due to sloppy editing but the film is generally good. Spooks: The Greater Good is a pointless adaption to the big screen but why are we complaining? It's a fun, thrilling and exciting watch

I imagine this probably would have benefited from having more knowledge of the series other than knowing it exists, but as it it's toothless and cliche, but perfectly serviceable. Plus, it's always a pleasure to see McInnery & Harington's hair.

Top badass moment? Harry Pearce, who makes James Bond seem like a My Little Pony accessory. Having just watched 10 seasons of Spooks, which I loved, this film benefits from the extra budget but less so from the longer running time. It also has the sort of sound mix where everyone's either mumbling or the gunshots are breaking my neighbours’ windows. Also features the world’s weediest hand grenade, Malcolm's self-perpetuating algorithm and lime seating. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.

Dire security services thriller. Full of bland macho agent characters double crossing each other over some nonsensical bad guy plot. As usual the fate of the world lies in the hands of 1 or 2 people, but with none of the style of James Bond or most of his imitators. Written and directed by folks who should probably stick to EastEnders. A waste of time and utterly forgettable.

I liked the whole "older and wiser" concept. *Recommendable

Booooooo

An enjoyable film that is perfectly watchable. Slow at times and kept me guessing just enough so that I didn't switch it off. There are some really nicely shot scenes throughout but overall the story is a little bit too unbelievable (especially towards the end).

The story moved briskly and was entertaining enough, but the actors' performances weren't all too memorable. Kit Harington isn't easy to buy as a conflicted secret agent.

MI-5 has some weak agents

The plot keeps twisting until it becomes so wound up that common sense is lost. Too many highly implausible or entirely unconvincing turn of events. Acting performances were mostly hardcore, and some of the action was good. Music and production quality was very good. The problem was the reliance on impossible plot points and some equally impossibe dialog. Overall, I like where they went with the story, but did not like how they got there. I liked Kit Harington better in Game of Thrones.