007 for kids? Sounds like a recipe for success. Ten million children around the world have bought Anthony Horowitz's Stormbreaker novels so this is a hotly anticipated film and, as it turns out, a pretty good one too.
Stormbreaker thankfully treads a delicate line between knowing comedy and straight (though mostly bloodless) action. It's ridiculous hokum – and it knows it.
After 14-year-old Alex Rider (Alex Pettyfer) discovers his recently deceased uncle (Ewan McGregor) was in fact a spy, he is enlisted by MI6 to investigate the nefarious goings on at Darrius Sayle's (Mickey Rourke) computer plant. Sayle's Stormbreaker computer is set to revolutionise British classrooms, but is there more to it than meets the eye?
By having a teenager reluctantly defend his country, Stormbreaker succeeds where too many Bonds have failed. The action is more exciting than one might expect, and cleverly avoids anything too graphic. Alex manages to beat up a gang of mechanics with a rope and some acrobatic martial arts, and outfoxes a Special Ops training unit. "He's not a boy... he's a deadly weapon!" And we can believe it too, the film always emphasising that Alex is a boy in an adult world.
There are plenty of well used locations. There's Sayle's last bid for global domination next to the seemingly ubiquitous Gherkin, a chase through central London on a horse, as well as a secret back room in Hamleys and some picturesque Cornish countryside.
Bill Nighy's MI6 director steals the show, his eyebrows arched till you feel they might pop out of the top of his head, and Stephen Fry's "Q-for-kids" Smithers is, well, Stephen Fry with gadgets. Mickey Rourke's extensive plastic surgery somehow complements his crazed genius role, and Andy Serkis makes a fine, mute weirdo bad guy, Mr Grin. As for Alex Pettyfer, he's about perfect for the central role: serious, blonde and cool – and presumably eye candy for the girls. There's not much more he could have done with the role, let's see how he develops if there are sequels.
The potential problem with Stormbreaker depends on the audience and the way it is pitched. Are kids so used to on-screen violence that they will shun the film's relatively mild portrayals? Or the other side, which is that younger kids will find it too scary?
The adults will love it; there are enough self-referential nods to keep them happy, and remembering their own childhood fantasies will tide them over. What young boy didn't want to be James Bond, or imagine that a photo booth in Liverpool St. Station could take them to a secret underground lair?
Stormbreaker is already an international hit in book form, so it looks like a sure thing in the cinema. We could have our next Harry Potter.
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