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Alex Rider review - Our verdict of Amazon's new TV adaptation

Photo credit: Amazon Prime
Photo credit: Amazon Prime

From Digital Spy

Alex Rider fans can release the breath they've been holding in for months – yes, 20 years after the first Alex Rider novel Stormbreaker was published, author Anthony Horowitz's bestselling teenage spy series finally gets a decent screen adaptation with a new eight-part TV show (launching in the UK on Amazon Prime).

Written by Guy Burt, who has worked on British dramas including The Borgias and The Bletchley Circle, and with Horowitz on board as executive producer, on the basis of the first two episodes it's a slick, fast-paced and enjoyably gritty adaptation of the second Alex Rider thriller, Point Blanc, that remains true to the source material while thankfully ditching some of the more dated (and dare we say, daft) aspects of the 2001 novel.

A few elements of the first book remain to set the scene and introduce Alex to those who haven't read the YA novels. The teen (Otto Farrant) – who is around 14 in the early novels but a bit older here (he goes to a party where there's booze!) – has been raised by his uncle Ian following the death of his parents.

Photo credit: Amazon Prime
Photo credit: Amazon Prime

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Alex thinks Ian is boring and works in a bank but when he dies in a car crash, the curious school boy investigates and discovers his uncle was actually a spy for a secret government offshoot of MI6 called The Department, run by Alan Blunt (Stephen Dillane).

Fortuitously, Ian had been covertly training Alex to be just like him – though up until this point Alex's skills had mainly been used to steal his friend Tom's (Game Of Thrones' Brenock O'Connor) confiscated phone from a locked teacher's drawer – so Blunt and his second-in-command Mrs Jones (Line of Duty's Vicky McClure) want to recruit him as they need someone to infiltrate a mysterious school in the French Alps called Point Blanc for a case that may be linked to Ian's murder.

While the rather lame opening credits feel as if they have been borrowed from a Timothy Dalton-era Bond movie, when the action starts (and it starts right away, with a businessman plummeting down a lift shaft to his death) it feels more like Jason Bourne Junior, packed with meetings in abandoned buildings, shoot outs, double agents, and suspicious looking goons lurking on every darkened corner.

Yes, folks, even though it may be based on books that are often read by kids as young as nine, this Alex Rider is gritty stuff and it's not babyish at all. By the end of episode two, Alex, who has already dealt with the possibility of going into care and his housekeeper/friend Jack (Ronke Adekoluejo) being deported, finds himself kidnapped, bundled into a van and tortured for information. That never happened on Paw Patrol.

Photo credit: Amazon Prime
Photo credit: Amazon Prime

The producers have clearly learnt a lesson from the previous Alex Rider adaptation – the 2006 movie Stormbreaker, starring Alex Pettyfer. Touted at the time as the first of an exciting new franchise, it was in reality a horrendous flop, in part because it was just so darned idiotic.

(In just two examples of the movie's bonkers casting, Alicia Silverstone plays Alex's housekeeper and Mickey Rourke is a caricature billionaire businessman. With silly dialogue like "What is this place – Hogwarts?" it came across as more Johnny English than James Bond).

Instead, this is a modern take on Horowitz's books that is a fun watch for older kids and adults looking for an easy-to-follow (don't expect any Line of Duty-style elaborate plot shockers), smartly paced TV thriller.

Fans of the books may mourn the lack of quirky gadgets – the novels featured a Nintendo Gameboy that emitted a smoke screen, an ear stud that was a grenade and a Sony Discman that doubled as a buzz saw – but their omission makes the series feel more current, in the same way James Bond was slickly modernised when many of his ostentatious 'toys' (like the underwater car) were ditched for the 21st century.

The decision to start the series by adapting book two is a smart one, too. Not only is the Point Blanc story clever and includes some dramatic, snowy backdrops and opportunities for cool stunts, but as fans of the books will know, now may not have been the time to redo Stormbreaker since the central plot is about a bad guy wanting to release a killer virus into schools. (Of course, the producers made that decision many months before Any Of This Nasty Business).

All the cinematic locations, espionage plot twists, daring stunts and smart dialogue doesn't amount to much, though, if you don't have a good cast, but the mix of well-known faces like Dillane, Ace Bhatti and McClure alongside younger stars Farrant and O'Connor works really well here, with the adults just as interesting and fleshed-out as the teens.

And while he may be a tad older than the character he plays, Farrant is really likeable as Alex – pretty important since he's in most scenes – and there's a believable best friend chemistry between him and O'Connor, as well as the hint of an intriguing maternal relationship to come between Alex and McClure's charming Mrs Jones.

While we wait for the next James Bond to come to the big screen, season one of Alex Rider is a thoroughly enjoyable substitute for spy fans, and, best of all, a worthy update of the popular book series, too.

Alex Rider will premiere on Amazon Prime on June 4.


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