So I watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol…

This is the movie that started my love for the Mission Impossible Franchise. I’d watched all the movies leading up to this one but I’d never really truly gotten into them.Maybe I was too young to appreciate them, maybe I was waiting for Paula Patton to show up, I don’t know; but after watching Ghost Protocol, I really became a fan.

Okay, basic plot: Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is back. Once again he’s got a new team and once again they are tasked with a seemingly impossible mission. The IMF has been disavowed and Ethan and his team are the only people that stand in the way of global nuclear war *cue theme music*

This is by far my favourite Mission Impossible. All the MI movies (due to their changing directors) have vastly different personalities. The first was a high-pace heist movie; the second an ill-advised love story; the third a pretty impressive action movie and Ghost Protocol is an espionage movie. I loved the feel of this movie – it feels like a proper James Bond-style spy movie. There are cool gadgets, women in sexy dresses at balls and an amazing car. But it also has all the rough-and-tumble action that you’ve come to expect from Tom Cruise and Mission Impossible. It’s a perfect blend of both worlds.

I have to bow down and give praise to Brad Bird. The man is an amazing director from The Iron Giant to The Incredibles to this movie; the man just knows how to create suspenseful, entertaining action that has moments of great humour. You can feel the energy and the scope that he brings to this movie. Visually this movie is a treat and I really wish I had seen it in IMAX. There are scenes in this movie that, even on my tiny computer screen, are breathtaking. The scenes where Ethan has to climb up the side of The Burj Khalifa in Dubai; the camera angles and the cinematography in these scenes are top notch. I feel the excitement and tension in those scenes sitting behind my computer, I can only imagine how wondrous and grand it must have been seeing it in a cinema.

Another thing I liked about this movie is that it keeps going. The films leading up to this one had a warm start, a sizzling middle and then a lukewarm ending. But Ghost Protocol is sizzling hot from the first minute to the last. It doesn’t let up. There’s so many great pieces of action in this movie, so much cool spy technology and an ever-present internal tension within the team that I absolutely loved. I think the only real problem I had with this movie was that the tension only came from Ethan and his team. The villain in this movie is extremely underdeveloped and, though challenging, he never really feels like a part of the story. This isn’t too big a problem because the focus of this movie is in the interpersonal relations between Ethan and his new team so the villain not being a major player is almost negligible.

Mission Impossible has always had top star casts but I think the cast in this movie is the best. The promotion of Simon Pegg’s ‘Benji’ into a more senior role was a masterstroke. There’s just something about a bumbling idiot rising to the challenge and becoming a hero that I love seeing. Plus, Simon Pegg is just amazing to watch. He’s extremely genuine and down-to-earth and you can connect with his character so easily. Paula Patton is a delight on screen but she also kicked some serious ass in this movie which I loved. Jeremy Renner does okay, I feel he’s holding back a bit in this movie and hopefully in Rogue Nation he reaches the heights that I know he can.

I loved this movie and I love the work that Tom Cruise puts into making these movies. The fact that he does his own stunts and that he’s constantly pushing the limits is something you can feel on screen. It feels real, it feels authentic. I’ve watched this movie about two or three times now and I still get the same chills and feel the same excitement every time. The stakes are the biggest they’ve been in an MI movie and there are too many cool moments to describe. Watch it! 9/10