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BY MAGGIE SCOTT

Preteens are about the only watchers who will get some kicks out of the new teen Bond knockoff adventure Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker.

The film is based on Anthony Horowitz’s books and has a cheesy innocence to its espionage-light ambiance.

Alex (Alex Pettyfer) is an orphan adolescent whose uncle and guardian Ian Rider (Ewan McGregor) is far from the boring banker he pretends to be. Rather, he’s England’s top intelligence service spy. That gets Ian assassinated and pushes Alex out of the posh, closely guarded nest of his multi-talented, perpetually furrowed-brow caretaker, Jack Starbright (Alicia Silverstone). Ian saw to it that Alex picked up many of the skills a crack secret service agent needs.

Besides the motivation to find Ian’s murderers, Ian’s got a jump start on qualifying for stepping into Ian’s shoes.

But, first he has to pass muster with MI6’s director, Alan Blunt (Bill Nighy), who fills Alex in on Ian’s demise and the evil doers who did him in. Alex doesn’t know what to make of this world that reminds him a bit of Hogwarts, but he does know he must do his best to stop the diabolical plans of one Darrius Sayle (Mickey Rourke, looking like cosmetically altered death-warmed-over).

Blunt equips Alex with get-out-of-tight-spots gadgets and sends him off to a 12 day drill with other “no name” agents-in-training. Then, it’s off to the Sayle lair disguised as the computer “nerd” who won Disc Drive World’s competition. The prize is to get a first-hand look at Stormbreaker, the “most important computer in the world.” Sayle has his own warped idea of computer literacy. Carrying a grudge against the man who is now England’s Prime Minister (Robbie Coltrane), Sayle seeks revenge for all the humiliation he suffered at school at the hands of snobs.

Instead of benevolent philanthropy, Sayle is planning genetic genocide, courtesy of lethal viruses he has installed in the personal pc’s he has so generously donated to England’s schools. Releasing the viruses is controlled by Stormbreaker. Precious minutes in the race against time are spent by Alex dodging Sayle’s suspicious enforcer, Nadia (Missi Pyle), and thwarting ingestion by Sayle’s giant pet man-o-war. But there’s not much doubt that Alex will do his uncle and his nation proud.

While Pettyfer has a way to go before you could say he’s cut from the same cloth as Sean Connery, he has an earnest charm that is hard to resist.

An MGM release, rated PG for action violence.
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