Cinema Review: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

From the classic TV show theme tune, to “your mission, should you choose to accept it”, Mission: Impossible has all the great building blocks of a long-running franchise, but its fluctuating fortunes have followed that of its star, Tom Cruise. In 1996 he was an A-lister, a status confirmed by the success of the first film, while by 2000 he was a megastar, propelling M:I-2 to the series’ highest gross. The third instalment, however, came after Scientology and that Oprah moment, and seemed to signal that Cruise’s days as box office dynamite were over. Another five and a half years later, Ethan Hunt is back again, this time not with a number in the title. There have been mutterings that this is the film where the star passes the torch to his successor, Jeremy Renner, but in fact it’s as much Cruise’s show as ever, with no hints that he’s running out of steam. Quality-wise the series has not conformed to the box office numbers: J.J. Abrams’ M:I:III was an accomplished action blockbuster, significantly improving on John Woo's earlier effort. This fourth entry, produced by Abrams but directed this time by live-action first-timer Brad Bird, continues in similar form. It’s exciting, spectacular stuff, if never quite doing enough to linger in the memory as anything more than an efficient diversion.

The only scene, really, that does linger in the memory is a central set-piece that involves Cruise scaling the outside of the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It’s a stunning sequence, vertiginously shot and with a pleasing reliance on keeping everything as real as possible. The series has never been short of thrills and spills – often involving the star dangling from something – and this is one of the highlights. Ghost Protocol’s weakness is in its plot, which gets short shrift, and is a bit of a throwback involving a corrupt tycoon trying to start World War III between old enemies America and Russia, first by bombing the Kremlin and then, come the film’s finale, by nuking San Francisco. The film eschews J.J. Abrams’ personal approach where Hunt’s new marriage was the driver of much of the story in favour of a more stripped down style. There’s barely a pause for exposition or character, barring the slow reveal of Renner’s backstory in a couple of scenes, which ties into that of Hunt. Without anything more to enjoy than a succession of bombastic, effectively staged action (with typical ridiculously exaggerated sound effects, where punches sound like blunderbusses), it gets slightly wearying at times.

The saviour is Bird’s commitment to building suspense, which he does several times to real nail-biting extremes. An early scene where Cruise and comic relief Simon Pegg sneak into the Kremlin with the help of some nifty gadgetry is a great example, as is the sequence following the Burj ascent where Cruise and Renner impersonate two baddies in a tense exchange. The suspense is heightened by the film’s refusal to rely on that old M:I staple of the impossibly perfect disguise, which is written entirely out of the plot. To be honest, it removes a little bit of the fun, but after M:I-2’s exhausting reliance on it, the gimmick does not have the novelty it once did. Cruise’s commitment to putting himself in harm’s way continues to be beneficial, giving the action more of a hardhitting reality than it would have if it relied more on CGI and body doubles (although I’m sure the contribution of the stuntmen here is still extensive). The lack of a good villain, however, proves to be a hindrance by the end; Michael Nyquist probably has about 5 lines and he isn’t particularly threatening as a briefcase toting businessman. The menace of Philip Seymour Hoffman is certainly missed.



Summary
The slightly awkwardly titled Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is overflowing with first rate action but is slightly lacking in substance to back it up, a drawback that stems from the pursuit of the constant adrenaline rush that audiences seem to expect. Nevertheless Brad Bird’s first directorial effort outside of animation proves that he is, as expected, more than capable behind a real camera too.