Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Review

Tom Cruise is back for a fourth outing with the IMF. That’s Impossible Mission Force, obviously, not International Monetary Fund, as any sensible person would naturally assume. The film kicks off with Cruise being busted out of a Russian prison for crimes unknown. He and his team (Pegg, Renner, and Patton) are then sent on the trail of Michael Nyqvist’s nuclear terrorist via the Kremlin, Dubai and Mumbai. En route, the Kremlin gets a bit blown up in what is incorrectly assumed to be an American attack and Team Tom are formally disavowed and must go rogue in order to save the day.

MIssion Impossible: Ghost Protocol is inherently, inexcusably and spectacularly ridiculous. It’s overlong, makes baffling logical leaps and in Tom Cruise, boasts a lead actor who may just be getting too old for this shit. It is also a heck of a lot of giddy and occasionally breath-taking good fun. It is likely to make you happy; and for this it must be commended. The ‘good bits’ come fairly frequently. Some are eye-boggling set pieces, such as the outstanding (and arguably pointless) free climbing section on the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest skyscraper. Others are smaller moments, such as the witty exchange between Cruise and a pursuer as he thinks twice before jumping from a window ledge; “it’s higher than it looked!” (This sequence is undermined somewhat by the vaguely grotesque sight of Cruise’s forty-nine year old bare chest; he’s escaping from a hospital and would frankly look more dignified in a backless surgical gown).

Whilst it is rollicking good fun, there are some disappointing elements. Nyqvist is largely wasted – there are product placement items that get more screen time than he does (notably the iPad). In his white suit, he also looks like a psychotic Colonel Sanders in the film’s climactic fight sequence, which is unintentionally hilarious. Director Brad Bird is similarly absent from the picture. I was interested to see what the Pixar guru’s take on the franchise would be but the direction leaves little impression. It would seem that Bird’s biggest influence on the film was getting it shot (partly) in the IMAX format rather than in 3D, for which I personally am rather thankful.

It’s also a little disillusioning that Pegg must play the bumbling goofball to Cruise’s cool dude when in real life, I’m fairly certain the opposite is true. But then if you can buy that, you’ll probably also be able to handle some of the Die-Another-Day-Invisible-Car levels of gadget ridiculousness (the pretend corridor screen, the hovering magnetic suit) and the fact that at one point, Cruise attempts to outrun a sandstorm.

Despite these things, I still enjoyed the film a great deal and when I say that occasionally it was at the film’s own expense, I don’t wish that to come across as too mean-spirited. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is the ideal popcorn movie. It may be stupid, it may be brash, but it’s also good clean fun. And if you go to see it at the IMAX, you’ll also see some of the new Batman; what further recommendation do you need?