Review: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol
SPOILER WARNING - At some point in this review I will talk about a major spoiler in this film, it’s nothing too big but it does reveal the end to a certain plot thread. I will give warning when I’m going to reveal the spoiler.
Ghost Protocol is the best Mission Impossible entry to date and that’s no mean feat giving how usually the forth film in a series is the weakest. However Ghost manages to blend fantastic action scenes, stunning effects and a brilliantly light-heartedness to the whole film to make it all work towards a great film.
The plot is nothing wholly original, some guy wants to ignite all-out nuclear war between USA and Russia for some contrived reason, there’s a couple of plot twists but nothing that will really shock you. There’s also a couple of side-plots, one involving a police officer chasing Ethan and his team and another regarding a past connection Renner’s character has to Ethan, both of which felt like they were only slight padding and neither fully looked into. The film could’ve cut them out and lose very little,
The acting’s all as good as it was in the first three films. Tom Cruise is still great as Ethan Hunt, he’s trying to clear his name, again and trying to save the world, again. You don’t get bored of Ethan though, his mix of ‘Can-do’ attitude and real-world ‘Are you/Am I crazy?’ hesitance makes for an endearing character.
Paula Patton plays new member to the team Jane Carter, Patton did really well here, she’d lost someone important to her and wanted to avenge their death and even if she went overboard a few times her tough-as-the-best-of-them nature always pulled her through. Also that green dress; yum.
Simon Pegg is back as Benji but this time he’s got a much bigger role. Pegg brought most of the humour of the film and gave it the light-hearted touch that made it work so well. Some them the humour felt a little out of place but the fact that Pegg had such great chemistry with everyone really brought the team together and I’m willing to forgive him for that.
And finally new-kid-on-the-block William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), initially an analyst Brandt is thrust, unwillingly, into the team and while he’s holding a lot of cards close to his chest he proves himself to be a vital member. Renner’s chemistry with Pegg, especially during the ‘Fan’ scene was a major point in the film’s favour and even when Brandt was back in the action his ‘Company Suit’ nature was still with him resulting is some surprisingly funny scenes - the stretch part was hilarious.
The villains are nothing really special, I guess they’re better than average villains but by and large forgettable. I did like Monroe, the female assassin, I thought her ‘Ice Bitch’ routine fitted the character and the fact that she looked amazing probably had a lot to do with it.
SPOILER - Skip this paragraph if you don’t want to know.
I also liked the fact that they brought back Michelle Monaghan as Julie. It’s nice and refreshing to see an action hero that can actually hold onto a relationship without losing their wife to a disease or killers or their own problems.
END SPOILERS
Brad Bird proves himself to be a great live-action director as well as an animation one, here he shoots some of the best and biggest action scenes I’ve seen in any movie, action genre or not. The film opens with an escape from a Russian prison - brilliantly to the tune of Dean Martin and from there there’s an infiltration of the Kremlin, the large scale bombing of the Kremlin, an escape from a hospital surrounded by police and a car crash into the river, all in the first hour. From there it just gets bigger and better, the entire sequence in Dubai with the hotel was stunning to look at and incredibly tense, especially when Ethan made the leap of faith. The sandstorm scene was fantastically made and a great scene to witness, made even better by it’s finale crash. And the finale fight upon the moving car-park, not the best fight scene ever and it did have a pretty weak ending but it’s an original location and required a lot of moving around. Speaking of which Bird never uses shaky-cam, at least not to my knowledge, he makes the camera flow, it follows the characters, not the action. I do have one problem with the direction and that the pace seems a little off, the first hour of the film just flies by, you barely even notice it but the second act feels a lot slower, when it was over I thought the film was hitting the two hour mark but it was only 90 minutes in. That’s probably because next to the fast and furious first act anything would feel slower but it was definitely noticeable and that’s not a good thing. That being said Bird did use the technology within the film to great effect, always using it when it was needed and despite needing a suspension of disbelief not once do you find yourself thinking that the technology is too ‘out-there’.
The score was also pretty damn good, a couple of memorable tracks, the Kremlin scene had a very Russian feel to the music and when we first reach Dubai the score evokes Lawrence Of Arabia. There’s a couple scenes that don’t use any score to heighten the tension but when the score is used it’s used really well and as with the first three films whenever something kicks off that familiar theme starts playing, telling you this is something big.
Overall, a pretty damn great film, well directed, a great score, fantastic action scenes and a well-played, likeable cast. Highly recommended for Mission Impossible fans or new-comers to the series.
8.5/10