Went to check out Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol last weekend. My first thought is that I really wish I could have caught it when it first came out in IMAX. Life being what it is, it's hard to get to the theater with any regularity nowadays, so I missed that opportunity, but at least I didn't miss the movie itself. It was definitely a thrill ride from start to finish.
After sitting through it, I didn't know how I would stack it up with the others in the franchise. What I think is cool about this particular movie series is the fact that you have different distinctive directors having a go at each one, so each movie feels different than the last. After seeing Mission: Impossible III, I really loved the fact that they made it a little more personal for Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt character. The stakes felt real and you felt like you had an emotional investment in what was going on. When I saw that one, I knew it was my favorite.
After a few years, I think I lean more towards the first one being my favorite again, just because I felt the twists and turns are handled better and the action sequences were more suspenseful. And after giving it a couple of days thought, I feel Ghost Protocol is up there with it. Like the previous installments before it, this one has a bit of a different feel to it.
The action sequences were top notch through and through. Not once do you feel disoriented from what's going on and in the vein of great action masters like Spielberg, Brad Bird builds each sequence like a roller coaster ride, with one thing leading logically to the next more daring moment of the stunt. Seriously, we're watching the birth of a master live action craftsman here (Yes, I realize Bird's been doing this awhile in animation with "The Iron Giant" and "The Incredibles"). This is the Mission: Impossible movie that finally gives us a sequence that is right up there with the CIA break-in in the original flick. Yes, I'm talking about the window climbing on the hotel in Dubai. Holy crap, that was breathtaking. And like all good action sequence, every scene ups the stakes from the previous scene. You know nothing really bad is probably going to happen to Hunt during the stunt, but it's staged in such a way to really notch the suspense factor up to 11. That's just the beginning of the Dubai sequence that ends with a pretty neat chase through a sandstorm featuring Tom Cruise doing that Tom Cruise run that only he can pull off.
Another thing this movie does a little differently is that it simplifies the main story. This is not a bad thing. Whereas the other movies weave a tangled web of intrigue and who-done-it, this one is fairly straightforward. Bad guy wants to start a nuclear war, Ethan Hunt and his team have to stop him. I would compare this movie to Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indiana Jones and his friends are doing everything in their power to get the Ark and keep getting blindsided at every turn. This is not an easy mission for our heroes. Virtual nothing goes right or to plan. A lot of improvising is done and the joy of the movie is watching them have to struggle to overcome the hiccups that impede their progress. Yes, I said "Them." This movie is not about Ethan Hunt alone, even though he is the main focus. This is about the team having to come together, cut off from their government, and use each other's strengths to get the job done. Jeremy Renner is good as the analyst that is forced to join the team when things really go south, Simon Pegg brings his usual brand of humor as the tech guy turned field agent and Paula Patton is the agent who has something to prove after her last operation ended badly for her lover. Ethan Hunt is still in the midst of all the action, but this time we see him start to become more of a team leader than he has been before in a scene where everyone else is doing the heavy lifting and he has to direct as he flows through the room.
Another thing about this movie that I found interesting was despite all the intense action scenes and the heavy nature of the story, it probably has more humor than any of the other movies in the franchise. A lot of that has to do with Simon Pegg, but they also managed to incorporate a lot of humor into the action to break up the suspense a little bit. I enjoyed it and thought it worked well for the flick. Say what you want to about the craziness that is Tom Cruise, but the man knows how to work his Tom Cruise magic into a movie and make it an enjoyable ride, and he was finally able to do so again with this, probably one of the two best Mission: Impossible movies out there.
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