I admit it, I am not especially in the target audience for Stormbreaker (official site). This is a young version of James Bond and the newspapers love the idea of main character Alex competing with Harry Potter about who is going to be the most popular teenage idol.
I, on the other hand, had to watch it, because they had done some clever casting, the list was promising : Bill Nighy, Robbie Coltrane, Stephen Fry, Ewan McGregor. Not bad, eh.
De film is based on a bestselling book of Anthony Horowitz, who also transferred his book to the script for this film.
The opening scenes got me hooked. Here we were, in a plane, flying over London, panning it all the way from the Thames Barrier to the Big Ben and Battersea Park, beautiful. And I thought, again, how lucky can you be living in a city as glorious as that. It became even more fun to see that the school Alex was attending is nearly in my backyard. So I was trilled to see all that.
They picked Bill Nighy to play the MI 6 boss. And after playing a squid, he here shows what a fantastic comic actor he really is. All his scenes are hilarious, his way of pronouncing his lines is top class comedy, and no other actor can have me falling of my chair laughing, just by eating a biscuit, filmed very close up.
But it wasn’t about Alan Blunt, it was about Alex, who should save the world from baddy Mickey Rourke. The story was maybe a bit weak, and Alex Pettyfer is a very young actor who still has a lot to learn, but it was certainly entertaining. And with scenes like a horse chase over Piccadilly Circus with the Horse Guard Parade, and climbing the Gerkin, well I haven’t been bored at all.
The only bad thing in it really was Mickey Rourke, he didn’t seem to be interested at all in this project, and that showed. Really bad performance, and the next time, just pick a Brit to play the villain, there is talent enough in this country.
So – should you see it?
If you like Bill Nighy you definetly should. If you like a popcorn-cola-action film you might like it too. And if you like London, you might seriously have to consider this one too.
Tagline: You are never too young to die …
Directed by Geoffrey Sax
Cast Bill Nighy, Alex Pettyfer, Alicia Silverstone, Robbie Coltrane, Mickey Rourke
[rating:4/5]
no offence is intended – you are afterall entitled to your opinion- BUT I ahve to disagree. I am a massive fan of the Alex Rider novels but the film was rubbish – so awful my friend and I almost walked out. It is not supposed to be funny. I mean the film starts out interestingly enough with the “what is it that makes us how we are” enequiry but after that it loses any vestige of seriousness and becomes a throughly unconvincing and downright terrible farce. Very disappointing – although despite the fact that Alex Pettyfer is about 14 he is gorgeous only good thing that can be said – oh yeah and i liked stephen fry as Smithers.
Thanks for your opinion. For me Bill Nighy (not surprisingly) saved the film, he was in fact the reason to go see it in the first place. I have to say that I have never read the books though. Apart from that, it really had some nice scenes in and around London, and it was entertaining. I didn’t expect more, I got entertained.