After Mission Impossible III came out in 2006, the series went on a five year hiatus, Tom Cruise worked on several films starting with Lions For Lambs also starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep, (my archenemy) Valkyrie, a World War II film directed by Bryan Singer, the action war comedy Tropic Thunder, with his good friend Ben Stiller (also a fan of Tom) and reuniting with Vanilla Sky co-star Cameron Diaz in Knight & Day. J.J. Abrams couldn’t direct, due to his busy schedule on rebooting Star Trek, his show Lost and directing Super 8. Despite not being available to direct, he served as a producer, Brad Bird took his place.
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was released in 2011. (same year Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II came out) It received positive reviews from critics and movie goers alike. Ghost Protocol is the highest grossing film of the Mission Impossible series so far and also Tom’s highest grossing film to date. Magazine company Variety compared the fourth movie to The Dark Knight.
Now that Mission Impossible: Fallout earned early positive reviews from critics as well as premiering in Paris, France, I want to share my real thoughts on what’s good or bad about the fourth entry to the series.
The following review doesn’t have any pivotal SPOILERS. If you never ever ever ever seen Ghost Protocol, feel free to read this non-spoiler article.
Positive & Negative Elements
Positive: Once again, Tom Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt and he did an excellent job for his performance. Besides starring and producing each film, Tom did all stunts without a body double, he totally deserves Bonus Points for all that hard work.
Simon Pegg reprises his role as Benji Dunn, he did a great job serving as The Comic Relief.
Newcomers to the series including Jeremy Renner, (Hawkeye from The Avengers) Paula Patton & Michael Nyquvist (the bad guy from John Wick) all did an awesome job for their respective performances.
Tom Wilkinson (Carmine Falcone from Batman Begins) makes a brief appearance.
Two important characters from the last movie make cameo appearances.
Action Sequences kept my blood pumpin’ without making me feel very bored. My favorite scene was Ethan climbing to top of the tallest building in the world. Believe or not, the climbing scene didn’t feature a Blue Screen nor stunt double for Tom climbing like Spider-Man. I’m giving the climbing part an Extra Point, as it’s arguably the highlight for the movie. Makes you sick whether or not Tom is a real life wall-crawler. If so, it would be awesome to acquire Peter Parker’s powers from a radioactive spider. Tom must’ve took some cues watching Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids 2: The Island Of Lost Dreams with his former third wife Katie Holmes & his daughter Suri. You know the scene from Spy Kids 2 when Carmen & Juni Cortez used a similar gadget to climb on a tall structure? Yep, that actually happened prior to Ghost Protocol.
Brad Bird did a decent job directing the fourth installment. Prior to directing Ghost Protocol, he directed The Incredibles featuring a spy element in the superhero genre.
Christopher McQuarrie (director of Rogue Nation and the sixth movie) did an uncredited rewrite for the script.
J.J. Abrams co-produced the film with help of his production company, “Bad Robot.”
Michael Giacchino returns to composed music pieces.
The iconic theme song is used during The Opening Credits. It is also used in certain scenes.
Cinematography looked gorgeously shot without any technical difficulties present throughout.
Besides Ethan, his teammates were pretty interesting and weren’t boring at all. They all served a purpose.
Ethan’s personal life is mentioned. If you remember watching the third movie, you probably understand why.
Paula Patton’s character Jane, introduces herself as “Agent Carter.” Peggy Carter (from the MCU) had a show that used to air on ABC called Agent Carter. Jeremy Renner is also a key cast member of the MCU.
Practical Effects were heavily used to build Action Sequences & stunts for Tom to perform dangerous scenes while C.G.I. was used to enhance a specific scene.
Mission Briefing takes place via Payphone. Other three films used to be a VHS tape, a pair of sunglasses and a camera.
The Stakes are drastically higher than its predecessor. The fourth installment involves nuclear weapons. To quote Tyrese’s character Roman Pearce from Fast Five, “This s**t went from Mission Impossible to Mission Of Freakin’ Insanity!”
At one point, Benji is wearing an Action Comics t-shirt. Action Comics is the one that introduced Superman in 1938. Henry Cavill who currently portrays Clark Kent/Superman in the DC Extended Universe, (DCEU for short) went on to co-star in Mission Impossible: Fallout. J.J. Abrams himself wrote an unproduced Superman screenplay titled, Superman: Flyby. By the way Superman’s polar opposite Batman, starred in him in a video game known as “Batman: Arkham City,” a sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum.
A nuclear missile is codenamed, “Iron Fist.” Is it me or does anybody in this movie is a huge fan of Marvel? Iron Fist finally made it to the MCU via Netflix. Don’t forget The Defenders.
Negative: Product Placement featuring a few brands such as Apple, Coca-Cola, Dos Equis, MacBook & LG. I’ll give this flaw a pass, because I couldn’t find any other brand to shove down my throat. Thank goodness Michael Bay didn’t produce or direct the picture!
The Final Verdict: A, FOR APEX!
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol is without a doubt, arguably considered my favorite installment of the series. All the positive stuff I’ve listed is why I ranked this the number film of the series. If you haven’t seen this movie, I strongly recommend this movie alongside the other movies in chronological order.
When Mission Impossible: Fallout opens nationwide, I’ll be the first in line to see it before a huge crowd finds the best seat with rails to rest my legs like a recliner.
Nickthemoviecritic.com 