Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Before I begin my review, I should state that I am quite unfamiliar with the Mission: Impossible franchise. I have not seen the original 1966-1973 television series, nor the 1988-1990 revival. I also haven't seen any of the other three Mission: Impossible movies with Tom Cruise, so I can't say how close it is to the show or how it compares to the other movies. Despite this unfamiliarity, after watching a screening at Paramount, I thought Ghost Protocol was actually enjoyable, even if a few things stood out.

Because the movie has yet to be released, I will try to express my opinion without spoiling too much. I will say that the plot is surprisingly easier to follow than plenty of other action movies out there, and this film has plenty of action in it. Brad Bird does an amazing job directing this movie, as he has done in the past, and except for one bit of exposition near the end of Act 3, you don't have to have seen any previous Mission: Impossible material in order to have a good time.

Though I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan, I thought his and everyone else's acting was pretty good; none of the dialogue really felt forced and lead to some suspenseful moments throughout. I've seen a lot of action scenes before, and I thought some of them here were actually pretty creative, including the one you see in advertisements where Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) uses special gloves to climb the side of a building, and I especially praise an inventive chase sequence taking place inside a sand storm, which I will not explain the context of since that's essentially spoiler territory.

While this is a good movie, there are a few things I thought stood out from the overall product, aside from aforementioned bit of exposition at the end. Near the beginning of the movie, there's a scene involving a series of explosions at the Kremlin, which looked very obviously fake to me. When I say this, I mean the explosions in the scene, done in CGI, didn't appear to be realistic enough since to me they completely stood out from the shot they were placed over. There's also one character we see at the beginning of the movie who doesn't appear again until the third act, and even though they had some level of importance, I felt they were practically unnecessary to the overall plot. Despite these minor complaints, the film still turned out rather well.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is a movie I would recommend to anyone unfamiliar with Mission: Impossible, since I enjoyed it as someone in that position, or to anyone who follows Brad Bird's career. If you have any sort of curiosity about this movie, or you're just someone looking for a good action flick this holiday season but wish to pass up Tintin, Ghost Protocol is the movie for you.