Mission Impossible is a series that continually receives spectacular action directors. From The Untouchables' Brain De Palma to the revolutionary John Woo, it always gets the best. But to me that's always felt like a bad point. It's a series that runs off the trends and talents of other films and adapts itself to suit the current market. The perfect studio money maker that you can always rely on for dramatic set-pieces and dumb fun, but never for new ideas or innovation. But this time around the godfather of American animation has been given the reins for his first live-action directing job. Is this a chance to finally see the style and charm of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles come into reality or just another derivative action flick.
We open with a rooftop chase, jump of a building and a deadly hug followed by an orchestrated prison riot to break out our protagonist Ethan Hunt. Then a montage of whats to come; nuclear codes, undercover break-ins and magnetic floating. The plot is not really that different from the previous three M:I films. Something crazy happens and everyone blames Ethan, the only difference this time is that the IMF are also blamed and are forced to completely liquidate, disappear like a ghost, like a ghost protocol some would say. This means that Ethan's team are on their own which makes this mission even more impossible than the last three. It's a decent set-up that makes the stunts that follow seem somewhat riskier than they have before, the clear highlight being Ethan climbing up the Burj Khalifa almost unassisted.
Asides from the big and bold stunts their are also some fantastic quieter moments like the Kremlin break-in where an iPad is used to mimic a hallway and fool a guard. It's a smart scene but what really sells it is the small level of believability. Clearly Apple signed a very big deal with Paramount but thankfully it works for the film rather than just looking like tacky piece of product placement.
On the side of performances it's nothing spectacular. They all do their job and say what they need to in the right way. Tom Cruise is appropriately moody and Simon Pegg plays the comedy role where every joke is either a complete miss or just brilliantly predictable. Jeremy Renner is probably the best of it all. When he is introduced as the straight-man to Pegg's 'funny-guy' it is occasionally charming and it all seems to come quite naturally to him. The real disappointment is no personable villain like the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the third film. The villain we get instead is an almost voiceless politician. In fact he is so bland that they could have changed the actor playing him on four different occasions and I would have been none the wiser. Instead of a bad guy we get a Russian police man who believes that Ethan is a terrorist and always appears just in time to cause some trouble. It's a role that could have been made more of as the character completely makes the ending.
The story attempts to exist over the explosions and violence but never really gets further than just making sure you know who to root for and who to doubt. For any fans of previous films there is some attempt to link back to the third but it seems like an after thought that never really matters. Which is a real shame because what made Brad Bird's previous films so brilliant were the human aspects. However, where Brad Bird really shines through in in the sheer joyful abandon it dances around. It is an incredibly fun film that put a smile on my face throughout.
There are many things in this film that could have been made more of and that's what this film really is through and through. It's perfectly adequate in every way and is incredibly entertaining throughout but it really stops there. You will think fondly of some of the set-pieces but forget about it pretty soon. I saw it yesterday and am already struggling to recall much more than a strong feeling of vertigo.
JO
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