Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)

As a completist I like to read and watch installments of everything (even farcical sitcoms) in chronological order. Still, though I missed Mission Impossible 3, it wasn't hard to get into Ghost Protocol's plot, such as it is.

Ethan Hunt is no less wondrous in his execution of impossible feats than James Bonds, but he makes them look a little more difficult and gritty. That's as close to "believability" as anything in this series gets.

As Hunt and his team gallivanted across the globe to save the world from nuclear destruction, I actually did get a sense of their different environs, Russia, Dubai and India. If the costumes, accents, interior and cultures were not exactly authentic, at least they provided a contrast from American locations.

The teamwork was entertaining, though formed by strangers. I'm not sure why William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) yelled at Jane Carter (Paula Patton) for "letting" an assassin die when, after all she was in a fullout brawl with the woman in front of a wide open window. Someone was duty bound to fall out of it and that was hardly anyone's fault but the script's.

In fact, all of the film's "emotional" moments fell flat and felt phony: Hunt's love for his wife, Brandt's guilt about that wife's death, and Jane's need to avenge a murdered colleague who was also (rather perfunctorily) a love interest.

In total though, the movie was a fun romp with some tense moments and consistent flair.