Review of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) by Itsmuchmore — 04 Feb 2015

Its been over 5 and a half years since the last outing of Ethan Hunt, with Tom Cruise playing the spy of all spys *debates Bond and Bourne* from the IMF. Last time we saw Ethan Hunt, he was trying to stop a dangerous arms dealer, while trying to keep his identity secret from his family and friends, in order to protect the people he cared about.

Fast forward to present day, and now Ethan is at it again this time trying to stop a terrorist who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes, but now without the help of the IMF (we will explain why shortly) but with only the remaining 3 people by his side, What seems to be left of the IMF, creating a new team for Ethan Hunt to be a part of.

The story of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is pretty simple, good guys, good guys framed, bad guys, bad guys want to start nuclear war to new beginnings, conclusion, end, but that doesn’t mean from one second to the next that its not a great ride to be part of.

The story ball starts rolling, when there is a bombing at the Kremlin in Moscow, and while Ethan and his team are there to get evidence on another case, it seems like they have been set up to be at the Kremlin at the wrong time, and when this bombing takes place, and implicates the IMF (Impossible Missions Force), the IMF is then subsequently shut down, and ‘Operation Ghost Protocol’ is put into effect. This then means that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), Jane Carter (Paula Patton), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), and William Brandt (who as luck has it joins the team on the ‘off chance’ (Jeremy Renner) are the only 4 remaining people of IMF, having to work together as a team, on the limited supplies they have (which turn out to be a fair amount considering they travel around half way around the world) and piece together what really happened at the bombing, or if the bombing it just a small piece of this puzzle.

We have to admit. We were pretty much hooked all the way through the movie,The action scenes looks great, with what you would expect from a Hollywood blockbuster. The chase scenes were done to perfection, and the hand to hand combat scenes were done as fluid as any recent Bourne or Bond film out there.

We have to say that obviously the ‘poster boy’ sequence at the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, is of course as good as everyone is making it out to be, from the setting off of the initial scene, the whys and the hows, to the showcased climbing up the building, to the venture back down and in the building. The trailer may have given a lot of the scene away, but still worth watching in its full feat. Lets also not forget, there are some other great scenes in the film including the mentioned Kremlin explosion, and a personal favourite, the sand storm chase scene. Everything in that scene brimmed excellence and perfection, so props has to go to the cinematography for that scene, as well as the film as a whole, as it does look a spectacle throughout.

Going back to Tom Cruise as the spy of all spy’s, Tom really does still have it. His acting throughout the film is great, along with his other cast members, including Simon Pegg who plays the comic relief perfectly, and is genuinely funny for once, and doesn’t seem misplaced at all, Paula Patton who plays the good girl/bad girl with a grudge, to Jeremy Renner, who plays the analyst/spy with great ease, which may cause to ring truth that Renner and his character have been made up to take over at the helm of the Mission Impossible Series once Cruise feels he’s had enough.

Another quick touch on Cruise, his acting and screen presence. A lot of other reviewers out there have said that they felt this was Cruise first and Mission Impossible second. I have to disagree, even though Cruise ran with the film (obviously he is the main sell, the main character after all) I really felt that everyone had there fair share of screen time, and did what that had to with great finesse.

Talking about screen time. The only major disappointment in MI:GP for me was Michael Nyqvist. Not the actor by any means, he was fine in every scene that he had, and especially his major act with Cruise near the end of the film, but it just felt like he was underused. Being the main villain of the film, it never really felt like we feared his character, or even the threat of what his actions were. We just knew that Ethan Hunt and his team were trying to stop someone, doing something, for some reason, but never much else. It’s touched upon, but Michael Nyqvist threat as Hendricks just seems lack luster which was shame.