Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (4 Stars - 4 Stars))


            Imagine a horrible series that got better by ten folds from the previous movie? The third Mission Impossible was a giant leap from its flaccid predecessors, and now, this latest one has made it better. The movie is directed by Brad Bird, an animation director who decided to go to live action, putting himself in danger this time. In fact, he puts himself in a situation that's so dangerous that most live action directors will dare not step near it. Because so, the movie seems to be a lot more dangerous and a lot more fun as a result of the danger. The way I see it, there is the brave soul, such as Brad Bird, who switch from animation to live action, and the live action directors who switch to blue screen stuff, such as George Lucas.

            The movie starts with an explosion at the Kremlin after Ethan's team had just recently infiltrated it. The IMF (Impossible Missions Force) is now taken full responsibility for the explosion in order to prevent nuclear retaliation, all the while, the IMF team are now faced with being man hunted, and finding the real culprit. So much is at risk and this is only just the exposition. The risks are so high, and yet, this movie is going to its fun roots which is basically, stop the bad guy before he takes over the world. I like the fact that the movie had a simpler plot. The bad guy is going to send a nuclear bomb to the US mainland, and the IMF has to stop him from doing so.

            Like the previous movie, Ghost Protocol relies on real danger rather than the dangerous situations that the screenwriter merely makes up. Instead of infiltrating a made up place, with the tripping lasers and the ventilation shafts, this movie used a real building that no sound man, no matter how brave or stupid, would try to attempt such a stunt. At one point, Tom Cruise had to literally scale the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world by a landslide, and the phrase, “never look down,” might have came in handy. In fact, because so, we are always tempted to look down at the nauseating heights, and because so, looking down gave me Vertigo in my seat. The camera simply looks down and all that is heard is the large gust of wind. The pure silence of the scene also added to the nauseating scene and if I can't handle that in the theater, then I don't know how the crew handled it with the IMAX cameras. How is it that any man can do this and not get scarred from it, even with all of the safety harnesses strapped on?

            The movie utilizes its creative limitations and stretches beyond what is normal and what is dangerous in real life. After the crazy dastardly insane stunts on the tower, Ethan then proceeds in a chase scene, in a sand storm. Who does that? The sand storm added to the suspense as we can never see what's up ahead of us. The movie also shows the IMF infiltrating the Kremlin, breaking out of prison, and pulling off a fake negotiation with real nuclear bomb codes.

            Each and every one of the Mission Impossible had a different take. The first one attempted was made like a thriller, obviously boring me with its bland deceptive storyline. The second was also a thriller muddled with pointless action scenes and an ending that had no purpose. The third was a pure full out action movie that had a tremendous amount of internal motivation, a first in the series. The fourth on the other hand was almost adrenaline rushed action in which everything had a sense of thrilling action put forth. Even catching up to a train had a lot of action filled moments that’ll skip a heartbeat. However, there are some personal motivations to add inside. There is a small follow up from the third movie about Ethan's wife and it has to do with the integrity of the IMF team.

            The movie does an excellent job of actually utilizing the whole team and even though Ethan Hawk is still the main character, there is an appropriate amount of screen time with each and every one of the characters. we have Jane,(Paula Patton), Benji (Simon Pegg) as the tech guy, and Brandt (Jeremy Renner) as a chief analyst who has a dark secret. Because this movie is about the disavowed IMF team and because they're out for blood and revenge, the team is more important than just Ethan himself.  

            So why did I like this movie so much? My expectations were somewhat low and this movie was a huge surprise in terms of execution. There are plenty of other good action films to watch; such as James Bond, or Die Hard, but this is the one time where I actually find this movie on par with those two. They've taken a used and worn out series and overcharged it. They made me appreciate the fact that this is the "make you feel awesome" action movie of the year. We've seen everything in terms of action and violence, especially in the Transformers series, but this movie was so much of a breath of fresh air. After the complaints of the series, I've always said, "give us what we want." Brad Bird replied, "I've got something better."

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