Directed by: Brad Bird
Written by: André Nemec, Josh Appelbaum, Bruce Geller
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Anil Kapoor
A very bad man is after a set of top secret Russian nuclear launch codes, and this is making the secret IMF organization very nervous.
IMF field agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) can't really help all that much with this; he's managed to get himself locked up in a high security Moscow prison. Agents Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) are assigned the task of getting the man out of the clink so that he can be put to some real use, and this is done in a fairly slick if raucous manner involving computer hacking and staged prison riots.
Now free to do his job, Hunt and his team head out on the trail of a newly arising supervillain going under the codename of Cobalt (Michael Nyqvist). This mastermind is looking to obtain the mentioned nuclear launch codes, and his ultimate goal is pretty damned nefarious. Hunt and crew must somehow break through the shadows to learn what is at stake, so that they may then stop it from happening at all.
Their mission gains an additional level of complexity when a large explosion rocks the Kremlin and is falsely attributed to the work of his team. Hunt, Carter and Dunn must now fend off a Russian crack team of investigators — ideally without killing them, as the Russian investigators are only doing their jobs and are not "true" enemies — while simultaneously stopping Cobalt's plan from reaching fruition.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is fourth in the Mission Impossible series and it absolutely stays in line with the entertainment of its predecessors. Its action is smart and clever; its gadgets high-tech, mind-boggling and even believable; its locations are exotic and interesting; it carries a wonderful sense of high suspense throughout, expertly broken up with well-timed comedy relief (often from the highly entertaining Simon Pegg). Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol has managed to assimilate a near perfect blend of all of these ingredients into a film that is simply entertaining.
Of all the aspects of a Mission Impossible film, it is the gadgets that get me the most. I have a weak spot for clever gadgetry, I admit — especially ones that actually seem like they might work. Many films dealing with advanced technology inadvertently step into Star Trek "dubious science" territory by featuring items that have no basis in the modern understanding of physics, or even in reality. This isn't really true about Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. All of the toys are firmly rooted in reality, and may actually be possible, if only in the near future. Two especially incredible gadgets were the mobile film screen that can be used to completely cloak agents moving down a well-lit hallway, and the strange chainmail magnetic suit that allows an individual to hover down an air duct, his motion controlled by a small remote control robot. It's just cool stuff, and even cooler because it just might really work.
The action, of course, is top notch. We couldn't really expect anything less from a Mission Impossible film by this point. The missions are intricate and smart, and the way they play out is a joy to watch. Ultimately, though, it's not about the mission being well-planned that makes it fun; watch the film, and realize that it's the mistakes that are made that keep the tension high. No well-thought plan ever executes as conceived, and it is how these errors are handled that really keeps us watching. A rope is too short, a high-tech climbing glove fails, or the enemy manages to see through a disguise — whatever it is, it will be something that makes an already difficult mission nearly, well, impossible, and it's how the agents handle the problems that makes it fun.
That's not to say Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is a perfect action film; not quite. Not everything makes complete sense. The evil plan of the villain mastermind is childishly diabolical and isn't really fleshed out. All of the villains, actually, are pretty thin; while the three IMF agents have depth and humor, all of the "bad guys" are shown as emotionless, characterless automatons who are only out to do wrong in the world. To lift the bar on future Mission Impossible films, it would be nice if they worked on creating a real villain that has a real goal and retains real character and personality. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol comes from a family of action films wherein only the good guys smile. The world doesn't really work that way. Give us a villain that we can vaguely sympathize with, even as we damn their actions, and you'll have an action film that's really memorable.
While not perfect, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is a highly entertaining film. Its action and high-tech gadgetry is smart and entertaining, and even manages to be somewhat conceivable. It's hard to do a film like this without challenging a person's suspension of disbelief, but more often than not, I found myself nodding and smiling with the demonstrations of technology. Don't bother checking your brain at the door; you can leave it plugged in for this one.
This is a Day Two Review.
Rating: (4 out of 5):
