Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol Review

Brad Bird continues his winning streak of entertaining films. The characters may not get to do a whole lot, but they are likable and the film is extremely well made.

I’ve been a fan of Brad Bird for quite a while, ever since seeing The Iron Giant at the theatre, and with his two subsequent movies — The Incredibles and Ratatouille — it was obvious that Brad Bird was going to be around for a long time. On the announcement that he was going to be directing the next Mission Impossible I was full of mixed emotion. I wasn’t a huge fan of the series, I liked the third movie but found the first two rather dull, and I didn’t know how well Bird’s abilities would translate from Animation to Live-Action. After seeing Ghost Protocol, however, it looks like Animation directors may be better suited to the job than most directors who’ve only been making Live-Action for their entire careers, or maybe it’s just the fact that Brad Bird is actually talented, because Ghost Protocol is far and away the best film in the M:I series.

It probably helps that the plot is the most fun and easiest to understand of the series, so far. Forget the convoluted double-crosses and uninteresting characters of the other films, this one sees Ethan Hunt and Co. in a straight-forward race against time to stop a bad guy from doing something evil, and the characters are well-written, with witty and often funny dialogue. This film doesn’t take itself seriously, with characters sometimes questioning why it is they’re doing whatever it is they need to do to complete the mission, which is something you rarely see in these kinds of films, unless it’s a parody, which Ghost Protocol is most definitely not. The acting is great all around, but none of the characters really stand out.

Tom Cruise plays it straight for most of the film. Jeremy Renner’s Brandt is an interesting character with a past that is made out to be more terrible than it actually is. He could have been given far more to do here, but this is essentially an ensemble film, so it’s understandable that he could only do so much in two hours. Simon Pegg is the major comic relief in a film that’s full of humourous characters, which makes his character a little redundant, but he does offer hacking skills, so he’s not completely useless. Paula Patton plays Jane, another part of Hunt’s team, and like everyone else doesn’t have much to do, but she looks good and she does get a kick-ass fight scene at one point, so she’s still likeable. The last major member of the cast is Michael Nyqvist as Hendricks, the main bad guy of the piece. I’ve never seen this guy outside of the Millenium Trilogy, but he’s pretty good even though, like everyone else, he’s under-utilized.

I know that all sounds terrible, that the characters don’t have much to do, but this film is all about the spectacle. It’s full of well-shot action set pieces, including exploding buildings and hand-to-hand fight scenes, as well as tense scenes where the IMF team are going about their job. I don’t know how storyboarded this film was, but Brad Bird’s animation history may have something to do with how smooth and effortless these scenes play out. It’s not just the big set-pieces though, even the quieter scenes have this kind of melodic pacing to them, like someone had walked into the writers meeting and said “This happens, then this happens, then this happens” and Brad Bird somehow gave it a rhythm unlike any other modern action film. It’s very, very well edited.

Speaking of rhythm, Michael Giacchino brings his musical talents to this film and it’s great to hear how he incorporates the Mission Impossible theme into a number of scenes. The music is so great, in fact, that I may have blocked out the movie a couple of times just to listen to it, which I don’t think is the desired effect for most movie scores, but fuck it, that dude knows how to make awesome soundtracks. Gimme that shit on a CD, now! (Yeah, I said CD… I’m so old)

Brad Bird continues his winning streak of entertaining films. The characters may not get to do a whole lot, but they are likable and the film is extremely well made. I found the film did start to drag a little at the beginning of the third act and the final scene of the film wrapped things up a little too neatly for my liking, but the rest of the movie more than made up for that. Overall, it’s not the best action movie of the year, but it’s definitely recommended for the set-pieces and music alone. Go see it!

Aaron

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Aaron runs this joint and writes stuff, like this amazing biography. He likes geeky things. @aaronrosstwit

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