Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is the fourth installment in the Mission Impossible franchise that from the first moment I heard about, I looked forward to seeing. Once again we are sent on another globe trotting adventure with Ethan Hunt and his IMF team. After Ethan and his team are implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin in Russia, they are disavowed and set out as a rogue team to not only prove their innocence, but are trying to prevent a Russian mad man from starting an all out nuclear war. A lot of times movie franchises, once they get into the fourth installment territory the story tends to get stale and end up being the same story rehashed with a different bad guy. Ghost Protocol has managed to avoid this trap even with the fact spy movies can only do so much without getting boring and redundant. The great aspect that works is the mixing in of the comedy into the action so seamlessly that it does not feel disjointed which is what happens a lot of the time.
Tom Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt and not only plays the role amazingly, but it is truly great to be able to see the character development and depth that Cruise has helped to build throughout the entire franchise. Of course on e of the most impressive aspects for me is that Cruise actually does his own stunts. The stunts he does are not just simple fight sequences but are actually quite breathtaking. Particularly when Cruise scales the hotel in Dubai. Jeremy Renner joins the IMF team as agent Brant and brings a great mystery to his character. With all the talk that Renner is set to take over the franchise, he does a great job at establishing his character as a strong agent who is a true equal to Cruise's Hunt character. Renner plays Brant with such a great mysteriousness throughout that the audience ends up wondering throughout the movie what exactly happened in his past that made him leave being in the field. Renner and Cruise share the screen equally and seemed to have an easy chemistry together. This works well for the movie, in that as it proceeds the torch ends up being passed from Cruise to Renner, while we still get a swan song for Cruise as the man carrying the franchise.
The supporting cast matches the performances brought in by Cruise and Renner perfectly. Simon Pegg in a larger supporting role this go around is a perfect fit. Playing Benji, who is no longer just the tech support guy as he has become field qualified. Yet, he is still nervous about being out there as a true agent and has his struggles with that at times. Pegg brings along some of the funniest moments with his comedic timing, especially in his interactions with Renner. He plays the comedy with such an easiness to it that it makes it fit seamlessly with everything else that is going on. Michael Nyqvist in the role of our villain Kurt Hendricks is admirable. He worked perfectly with what the script gave him, and when onscreen he just had a demeanor that we should not like him, but for me something was simply missing with his character.
The story for Ghost Protocol was just as good as the previous installments. This go around takes us on not only a journey all around the world, but one where I feel like they have finally given us the complete story arc for Ethan Hunt. Of course if this truly ends up being the end for us seeing Ethan Hunt heading up IMF teams is yet to be seen and they left it open ended for Ethan Hunt just like they have in all the other installments. So it will I am sure be up to Cruise to decide what type of role Ethan Hunt will have moving forward. In the story though we are taken from seeing Agent Hunt being accustomed to being the lone wolf out in the field with minimal help and the mentality one must have when working like that to learning how to trust in being a part of a team with what happened to his old team in the first installment and the betrayal he felt. The story flows from point to point with a nice fluidity so that it does not ever feel slow or dragged down, while at the same time it does not move so fast that the audience has no clue what is happening or where the plot of the movie is going. However, the biggest flaw for me was that of our mastermind villain Hendricks. On paper a mad man trying to incite all out nuclear war would seem to be a perfect fit for a spy movie, and I believe mad men wanting to destroy the world with nuclear warfare is a common theme through a lot of spy movies, yet there never was a depth added and we never received the villain soliloquy in which he gives the good guy and the audience his reasoning behind his actions, so I was left not having much of a care for the villain. The audience needs to have a reason to root against the bad guy other then the simple fact that he is going up against Ethan Hunt and his IMF team. I think for me after how great of a villain we had in the third installment with Phillip Seymour Hoffman's perfect nemesis of a villain to Ethan Hunt I just simply expected the writers to take the villain to another level.
To go along with the story the direction gives us some amazing action sequences paired with some amazing locations. I ended up seeing this movie on the IMAXThe fight scenes were done very well, incredibly brutal and realistic looking. The sound for this film really helped as you could almost feel every punch and kick as well as the explosions. The greatest scene for me was Ethan climbing the hotel in Dubai, the worlds most tallest building. Shot in IMAX as well, I almost felt like I was right there next to Ethan looking down from above. It is even more awe inspiring to watch in the IMAX as he swings himself then launches himself off back into the room he left from originally.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is an entertaining movie that is one that you can watch over and over again. It is always a nice thing when a movie that could easily be a summer blockbuster comes out during the doldrums of the winter, it really ups my excitement level for the blockbuster movies to come out in the following months. Cruise does not disappoint in his role and I still respect the fact that he does his own stunts and seeing the stunts he does here make it even more impressive. Renner was a great addition and will take over the franchise nicely. Even at two and a half hours the pacing fits so nicely that it did not have me getting bored and wondering when it would be over. It was a fun adventure across the world, I am giving Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol three buckets of popcorn out of five. This is a movie well worth seeing on not only the big screen but an IMAX screen as well and it is one that will definitely end up in the movie collection.
-The Movie Man
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