Review of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) by Thatcritic47 — 10 Apr 2012

When I watched Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, I watched it for a few reasons. The guy from Lost was in it. Jeremy Renner and that awesome trailer I saw in the theater, plus it had been a long time since I had seen a MI film, even though I wasn't a huge fan to begin with.

Let me say the good things about MIGP. The action in this is very good. Obviously the highlight action scene is the Dubai scene with Tom Cruise hanging on the tallest building in the world. There were other good scenes though, like the sandstorm scene.

Overall the movie is very well paced for a movie that ran, I think 2 hours even of screen time. The cinematography in this is outstanding in this as well. There was also some good use of gadgets here too.

All that aside though, there are more negatives about this movie, than good things. For example, I mentioned that I loved that the guy from Lost was in this, but they end up killing him in the beginning of the movie.

Overall the acting is kinda dull, I wouldn't say it's bad acting but, just not great. I also thought that they showed too much stuff in the trailer, and way too many TV spots showed the Dubai tallest building in the world scene.

The character development overall is not really here for Tom Cruise. We really don't get any character progression with him in. I mean when you stamp a franchise around a guy, like Bruce Willis has done for Die Hard, you need some character progression and development.

There's little to no explanation to what's happened to Tom Cruise in the beginning of the film too. Other characters get some okay back story, like Paula Patton. Jeremy Renner, is supposed to be a bit unknown in this movie, but when he finally reveals the secret it feels like wow, that's the big secret.

It's not that I saw it coming or I thought that Renner didn't deliver with his acting, it just wasn't a big secret, even though the very ending was cool. The story in this is also disappointing. I mean the IMF's mission is to stop a nuclear war or bomb.

It would be cool if the villain had some motivation in this movie. All you really see him doing in this movie is hold a brief case. I thought the assassin woman was way better. Overall you end up getting a story that is decent, but the Russians don't show that they are really all over these guys.

For a movie that is called Mission Impossible, it doesn't seem like the stakes are all that high in the movie. Even though some of the things that they do, like the huge building that Tom Cruise climbs.

I don't think you feel the desperation in the mission, because the main villain doesn't seem to be all that serious about taking action, besides using a nuclear bomb, with unclear motivations. I could go on and on about this movie, but I'll say that this movie is an excellent, action movie.

I thought that Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner give good performances. The movie does a good job of throwing impossible scenarios to Ethan Hunt and his team, but the feeling of desperation, is not there enough, like it was in the previous MI movies.

It was a cool kick your feet up movie though. There was some creative direction with Brad Bird at the helm, but he doesn't know how to quite direct actors. I'll give him a pass though because this is his first live action movie, he's directed.

So if you haven't seen this movie, you should definitely see this, just don't expect something great.