Stormbreaker

Geoffrey Sax's film version of the first book in Anthony Horowitz's best-selling adventure series pitches itself as a teen Bond movie, complete with gadgets, guns, pretty girls and a deranged megalomaniac.

Unfortunately, Stormbreaker isn't a patch on the other pint-sized pretender, Spy Kids.

Editor Andrew MacRitchie works tirelessly to invest the myriad action sequences (well choreographed by stunt co-ordinator Lee Sheward) with energy.

However, for all their pyrotechnics, these big set pieces are never thrilling because we never believe there's any chance the 14-year-old hero, Alex Rider (Pettyfer), will be injured in the melee.

The youngster's ability to escape from the jaws of death without a single scratch beggars belief - even Bond has to nurse bruises and cuts.

Thus, most of the big stunts are nudged to implausible extremes. During a bicycle chase through London, Alex elects to ride kamikaze down the middle of a busy street into oncoming traffic rather than keep on the empty pavement a few feet away.

And a subsequent quad bike chase sees the teenage secret agent riding on two wheels for no good reason other than it looks cool.

When his uncle, bank manager Ian Rider (McGregor), dies in mysterious circumstances, schoolboy Alex Rider stumbles into a world of mystery and intrigue.

He discovers that Ian was actually a top spy for the Special Operations Division of MI6, working under the aegis of Mr Blunt (Nighy) and Mrs Jones (Okonedo).

They recruit young Alex into the MI6 fold so he can infiltrate the lair of billionaire Darrius Sayle (Rourke), who has generously offered to install the new Stormbreaker computer system free of charge in every school across the United Kingdom.

Mr Blunt smells trouble.

"We don't trust him," he tells Alex. "Why?" replies the schoolboy. "We don't trust anybody," responds Mr Blunt. "It's what we do."

Sure enough, Darrius and his sidekicks Nadia Vole (Pyle) and Mr Grin (Serkis) are concocting a hare-brained scheme to strike fear at the heart of the country and it's up to Alex to stop them.

Screenwriter Horowitz, working from his own book, maintains a jaunty pace and includes the odd pop culture reference ("What is this place: Hogwart's?" quips Alex when he first enters the Special Operation Division secret lair), along with some gentle comedy.

Pettyfer is photographed like a poster boy pin-up, with lots of close-ups of his blond locks fluttering as he pouts with intent.

But he doesn't have the acting muscle yet - the delivery of certain lines is stilted - and the use of stunt doubles is glaringly obvious.

The supporting cast don't so much deliver performances as master-classes in exaggerated facial movement: Nighy rolls his eyebrows with furious abandon, Silverstone contorts her mouth into curious shapes without warning and Pyle enters into a staring competition with the camera, opening her eyes so wide you fear for her well-being.