Mission: Impossible (Ghost Protocol) - Page 2

Caught this a few days ago and, like other folks, I thought it was pretty good.

Terrific movie. Builds on the strengths of the third film (which itself was a huuuuuuuuge improvement on the dull, depressing first one and the god awful to the point of being non-canon 2) while kicking it to overdrive. Its not perfect (the villain is underwhelming compared to Phillip Seymour Hoffman's great Owen Davian) but compared to most of the other action flicks this year, I was really excited and into it.

 

Rating the franchise as a whole:

 

Mission: Impossible III (again superior villain, and it was the first to have a genuine team dynamic, although Cruise takes control again towards the end)

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (it's a REAAALY close second)

Mission: Impossible (its better than I remember still not great)

Mission: Impossible II  (on the other hand this... well...)

I believe there is subjective film appreciation, but damn, this is too funny.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crawdaddy

I admit, I thought MI:3 was better then MI:2, but I didn't find it to be nearly as much action-fun as this.   Im sorry our Thread Starter found it lacking.   Frankly, I thought the action was pretty enjoyable and I loved the mad-cap zany elements to it which I thought really picked it up (him taking out the window divide cracked me up)

 

But, to each their own.  

My 21-year-old son and I watched this today at our local IMAX theater.

 

We both enjoyed it very much.  In particular, I thought the Dubai building sequences were spectacular.

 

We even did an M:I marathon of the other three films in the days leading up to today's viewing.

 

For me,

 

1. MI: 4
2. MI: 3 (close to 1)
3. MI
4. MI: 2 (a distant 4th)

That's my ordering as well Mike. The Dubai sequence is fantastic (and the rest ain't bad either).

Saw an IMAX viewing earlier this evening. I found it to be an engaging action film that delivers quite a bit of entertainment. The chemistry of the team was quite good and I liked the fact that the members had vulnerabilities which made them feel more three dimensional. The set pieces were well constructed but I though the overall pace of the film was a bit choppy. There wasn't a good balance between the down time sequences and the full throttle action set pieces; which gave the film a little bit of a roller coaster feeling in terms of how the scenes flowed.

The visual design of the film was strong with the exteriors really shining in the IMAX format. As striking as the Dubai sequences were in the film; I found myself enjoying all of the exterior shots; not just the skyscraper set pieces. Academy Award winning cinematographer Robert Elswit has done better work but this is still a strong entry in his oeuvre with the IMAX footage looking splendid.

While the action was quite strong throughout the film I did find it a bit too cartoonish at times. That is okay for The Incredibles, but I had to stretch a few times to go along with the action. The climax of the film was probably the biggest offender in this area with the timing of the crisis feeling a bit suspect and I had a very difficult time believing that Hendricks could physically challenge Hunt in any possible manner.

Humor was strong with Simon Pegg being the primary comic relief in the film. I felt the team approach of this film was much more in line with what I expect from 'Mission Impossible'. All in all a solid piece of action cinema. Not my favorite action film of the year - I think that is still Captain America; but a fun film that is well worth seeing on the big screen for the visuals if for no other reason.

The obligatory ranking of the MI films is as follows:

Mission Impossible; Ghost Protocol. - Probably not fair to the others as it is freshest in my memory.
MI II - Yep, I like it a lot. Beautiful cinematography. A nice performance from the lovely Thandie Newton and Doug Ray Scott's snarky villian.
MI III - Liked Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Would have liked this more if I had never seen the series Alias, as this felt like a big screen version of that series with the flashback structure.
Mission Impossible - Hated what they did to Jim Phelps' character and thought the helicopter sequence was absurd. Other parts (esp. Ving Rhames) were just fine.

- Walter.

Tom Cruise got what I thought was the funniest line I've seen in a movie in months when he says Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

THAT line got a HUGE reaction from our audience!

Found it interesting that none of the gadgets really worked, starting with the self-destruct. A deliberate choice by the writers to "mix it up".

What was the purpose of having the henchman at the skyscraper turn out to really the main bad guy with a mask? To establish his bona fides as an action villain for the climax? (It's telling I can't bother to name either the characters or the actors -- the movie's main weakness.)

A good way to cap an underwhelming year at the movies.

The whole point of that elaborate bait and switch was to use the false codes to track him down. If they knew he was there the whole time, they could have simply killed him and been done with it. So it was the movie waving its hands on the sides of its head and sticking out its tongue at the protagonists.

Wouldn't have cleared the IMF in the same way, but furthers the "things aren't going according to plan" theme of the movie. Thanks.

I took it a different way.   I thought they were saying that the characters had assumed a very serious level of complexity to the bad guys plan, when his plan was always about as straight forward as it got; in the end, it was truly his fanaticism that drove things forward, not his reliance on some detailed plan.   He went A-B they assumed he would use emissaries, etc. and were befuddled when he didn't.

I totally agree. When friends asked me to recommend a film I saw over holiday break, MI:4 was my first and only choice.

just watched this, quite enjoyable!

 

first, paula patton: WOW

 

that aside:

 

1) the Dubai exterior sequences were amazing, but i guess there was nobody in any of the rooms that Hunt was climbing outside of... "never mind me, i'm just washing the windows... heh heh". 

2) the antagonist and the female assassin/seller didn't know what eachother looked like?  in this day and age?

3) that the missle made it all the way to SF without triggering any kind of US anti-missle defense is quite interesting.  and it shouldn't need to actually detonate to start WW3

4) i too found it curious that the antagonist could go toe to toe with Hunt.

5) i wish they would have did something with Josh Halloway's secret last words to Paula Patton, but i guess it was just a personal thing rather than plot-related.

 

overall this was probably the best MI, but i would put the first one up there as my other favourite. 

i liked the early rescue sequence of MI3 but that's about it.

 

Great previews. Even saw him on Letterman and he really semed normal, just very enthustiastic. Not the loon he was on the Oprah show a few years ago.

Managers and agentw must have told him to tone it way, way down or he'd look like an idiot again.

Actually looking forward to seeing this, looks like it was done fairly well.

I have one more to add to that list:  Why did the main villain find it necessary to take a swan dive with his briefcase?  Couldn't he have accomplished the exact same thing by simply throwing it over the edge?  Then he also would have at least been around to try and prevent Hunt from going after it.  Seemed a rather silly move.

 

I would have also added to the list why did the flare up the sleeve of the dead agent work, but they actually acknowledged that one :)

 

Excellent film by the way.