THATFILMGUY

The Mission: Impossible movie franchise has never been widely regarded as good. I have a particular soft spot for Mission: Impossible 3, but I am the first to admit that it’s mindless fluff. Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol (if most of the time a colon means a bad movie, this one has two) is the first M:I film to receive generally positive reviews. Is this a turn around for the franchise? The answer is a resounding: yes!

The plot of Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol centres around Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise). He is being held in Russian prison, until IMF break him out. New team members Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) explain to Hunt that they were tracking a person of interest codenamed ‘Cobalt’. On the way, one of their agents was killed while trying to retrieve a document from Cobalt. Ethan is told that the president has initiated ‘ghost protocol’ “ they are ordered to perform a mission, but should it go wrong, they go down and the president denies all involvement. Ethan then discovers an entire conspiracy involving nuclear weapons that he and his team must stop to prevent the planet falling into World War III.

While the plot of M:I:GP is hardly original, the key is execution. The film is made brilliantly. 9 times out of 10 the term ‘big budget popcorn flick’ is not used positively. This is an example of that done right. All of the cliches that are associated with big action films are either banished, or they’re actually done well! The comic relief in the form of Simon Pegg is funny. The action is the most thrilling I’ve seen since Speed. It is a vast improvement over the first three films. Tom Cruise is now looking older and more rugged than before and it really makes his ‘action hero’ character a lot more believable.

The special effects are superb. Not because the CGI is good, even though when they do use CGI it is great, but because most of the effects are practical. It’s a welcome break to the piles and piles of CGI centric action films the market is currently saturated with. The action sequences are so intense that there is a strong danger that you’ll clutch the arm of the person next to you so hard that it’ll break. It’s incredible that a truly thrilling action has finally come into play and it has set the bar for all action films coming in 2012.

Mission: Impsossible: Ghost Protocol is a fantastic film. It’s also one of the most surprising films of 2011. It’s thrilling, suspenseful, and most of all, fun. It’s probably best seen with 4 or 5 friends with you so you can enjoy this extremely entertaining film.

James Haves