Regardless of the reputation of its lead actor, the Mission: Impossible series have always garnered a lot of attention and interest. The franchise's latest installment Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol had plenty of buzz leading to its premiere. I mean, who wouldn't pay attention to videos of Tom Cruise dangling outside of Dubai's Burj Khalifa tower?
It's always interesting when a new installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise comes out. Unlike other film franchises, the Mission: Impossible
films are spaced at least four to five years apart, which helps in
keeping it fresh for viewers. The time in between each installment
ensures that the audience do not have to endure through half baked story
telling, just because producers rushed the film making process to milk
the audience for their money while their interest is still piqued.
One other point of interest is that each Mission: Impossible
film is directed by a different director, with each one giving their
respective installments a different feel. One of the reasons why I was
interested in watching Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is because of director Brad Bird. The film would mark his first high profile foray into live action film making. When you hear the director of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, you don't imagine director of one of the biggest action film franchises in the industry.
Yet, direct Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
he did. And directed it well, by the way. The end result was a fast
paced film that featured a great storyline, fluid dialogue, humor, drama
and spy awesomeness. No, I don't think Brad Bird had any difficulty
transitioning to directing live action films.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol reintroduces us to Ethan Hunt, who works with a new team after being broken out of a Moscow prison. Continuing with the work of slain IMF agent Trevor Hanaway, Ethan, Jane Carter and Benji Dunn accept a mission to infiltrate the Kremlin to gain information on the terrorist Cobalt. Things go awry as Cobalt sabotages their mission and sets off a bomb to destroy the Kremlin. The IMF team is blamed for the act of terrorism and the US President activates "Ghost Protocol" to disavow the agency. After the IMF Secretary is killed, Ethan, Jane and Benji are joined by William Brandt in pursuing Cobalt, who is actually the nuclear strategist Kurt Hendricks. Cobalt intends to incite a nuclear war to support his vision of culling out the weak in humanity.
Tom Cruise was back in fine form. Still defying his age with extreme athleticism, Cruise portrayed a more relaxed Ethan Hunt. He still took on the various physical challenges head on, but also expressed dry humor at having to do them. Despite looking like amateur spies sometimes, Simon Pegg and Paula Patton were pretty dependable as IMF team members Benji and Jane, respectively. With the somewhat lighter mood and dialogue, Simon fit right in. For some reason, I never once thought he didn't belong with the team. Heck, I didn't even think Hot Fuzz or Shaun of the Dead, which I'm usually apt to do every time I saw him on other films.
The installment's token villain William Brandt aka Cobalt was played exceptionally well by Michael Nyqvist. I always have a soft spot for villains who are exceptionally brilliant and likes to introduce chaos, but does not resort to diabolical laughing or mustache twirling. Besides, he was good enough for me to separate his portrayal of Cobalt from his very memorable turn as Mikael Blomkvist in the Millenium Trilogy, which included the Swedish original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
There was also a lot of interest in how Jeremy Renner would do as William Brandt, an IMF chief analyst whose past is tied with Ethan's. There was a lot of talk that Renner, in his role as Brandt, would eventually replace Cruise as the face of the Mission: Impossible franchise. Coincidentally, he will be headlining as another Treadstone trained operative in next year's The Bourne Legacy, the first in the franchise without Matt Damon. Although it never felt like any torch passing was being done, with Tom's Ethan still in the center of every action sequence, I still enjoyed Jeremy's performance. And the scenes involving the server room infiltration and magnetic levitation.... hilarious. I didn't know Jeremy could do comedy.
The film was exhausting to watch. A Mission: Impossible film can't be without the action. And there's definitely plenty of action. The bombing of the Kremlin, the sandstorm chase, and a pretty painful looking epic fight in a high tech garage building all made for exciting moments. But I will never forget Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol because of the much publicized scenes involving the exterior of the Burj Khalifa towers in Dubai. Ethan had to free climb outside the tower to get to a server room on a higher floor, with a special pair of gloves as his only tools to make the climb. I knew that when Simon's character Benji mentioned the words "Blue is Glue" and "Red is Dead" that Ethan would slip. Most likely more than once. I knew that those scenes would come, but I still held my breath. And when he was finally perched outside the server room.... what do you know, he fell and caught himself in time with his one remaining working glove. I knew it would happen. But I still screamed. I screamed. In a movie theater. Where there were other people. Too exciting.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol turned out to be a great last film to watch this year. While I don't think I can re-watch this installment anytime soon (I have to get over my mortification of screaming in a movie theater), I can't wait for the next Mission: Impossible film.
Happy viewing!!Labels: Action, Adaptation, Film, Mission Impossible, Must-Watch
