The fourth Mission: Impossible film opens with franchise hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) imprisoned in Russia. Aided in his escape by IMF members Jane (Paula Patton), tech wiz Benji (Simon Pegg) and newly added analyst Brandt (Jeremy Renner), the team soon finds itself disavowed by the American government under the so-called 'ghost protocol'. Framed for a bombing they had no part in, they are hunted by authorities while trying to keep the world a safer, terrorism-free place.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is lightning paced and action driven entertainment. Ethan Hunt’s travails feature a different director for each entry; the franchise opened with De Palma, before moving on to the sheer spectacle of John Woo and the more restrained, personalised story in JJ Abrams’ third entry. Now Pixar stalwart Brad Bird makes Ghost Protocol into a clever, often humourous affair featuring some of the best action sequences of the series. Much has already been said about the Burj Khalifa scenes, where Cruise scales incredible heights to prevent a considerable crisis (the Burj tower is the world’s tallest building). I must admit, these scenes are jaw dropping, though I prefer the spy-based trickery that follows in the scenes immediately after. In the end, Bird also manages some sensible continuity linking the previous film with the fourth.
Clearly, Ghost Protocol is a tense, exciting affair. It is all the more unfortunate, then, that the film lacks a central, crucial element that any action movie worth its sweat cannot do without: a strong villain. Even the weakest Brosnan Bond (The World is Not Enough) had one. Agreed, there is a character in the film, Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who is out to start a nuclear war. He is supposed to be the bad guy, but Hendricks is so thinly drawn, so Cold War cliché that the film might as well have been about the IMF battling pre-programmed war drones intent on starting a nuclear war. Hendricks becomes a weightless afterthought, which unfortunately reinforces the idea that the film exists to showcase a series of impressive stunts and effects. Consider Philip Seymour Hoffman’s villainous Owen Davian in the third Mission: Impossible: convincingly threatening, malevolent and cruel, at least when compared to the presence-less Hendricks.
All in all, Ghost Protocol is another steadfast franchise entry, but it’s not quite the hyperbole framed action event some have claimed it to be. And in no way is it a threat to Craig-era Bond. When’s the last time you watched Casino Royale?
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is lightning paced and action driven entertainment. Ethan Hunt’s travails feature a different director for each entry; the franchise opened with De Palma, before moving on to the sheer spectacle of John Woo and the more restrained, personalised story in JJ Abrams’ third entry. Now Pixar stalwart Brad Bird makes Ghost Protocol into a clever, often humourous affair featuring some of the best action sequences of the series. Much has already been said about the Burj Khalifa scenes, where Cruise scales incredible heights to prevent a considerable crisis (the Burj tower is the world’s tallest building). I must admit, these scenes are jaw dropping, though I prefer the spy-based trickery that follows in the scenes immediately after. In the end, Bird also manages some sensible continuity linking the previous film with the fourth.
Clearly, Ghost Protocol is a tense, exciting affair. It is all the more unfortunate, then, that the film lacks a central, crucial element that any action movie worth its sweat cannot do without: a strong villain. Even the weakest Brosnan Bond (The World is Not Enough) had one. Agreed, there is a character in the film, Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist), who is out to start a nuclear war. He is supposed to be the bad guy, but Hendricks is so thinly drawn, so Cold War cliché that the film might as well have been about the IMF battling pre-programmed war drones intent on starting a nuclear war. Hendricks becomes a weightless afterthought, which unfortunately reinforces the idea that the film exists to showcase a series of impressive stunts and effects. Consider Philip Seymour Hoffman’s villainous Owen Davian in the third Mission: Impossible: convincingly threatening, malevolent and cruel, at least when compared to the presence-less Hendricks.
All in all, Ghost Protocol is another steadfast franchise entry, but it’s not quite the hyperbole framed action event some have claimed it to be. And in no way is it a threat to Craig-era Bond. When’s the last time you watched Casino Royale?
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