Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

[The Dark Knight]

So the trailer for the fourth Mission Impossible film has hit. And it looks slick (check out the cinematography), energised (check out the action) and above all - fun. There is nothing wrong with comic book simplicity. I know people here are longing for that interpretation. There is something more campy and heightened about the Mission Impossible films that I enjoy. Now, they're not as good as the Bournes or most of the Bonds. But they're still reasonably well-made, entertaining and have never given us a dog like Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or Terminator Salvation. Roll on December. Take a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0LQnQSrC-g&feature=player_embedded

[Paul (ral)]

I love the first one, was indifferent towards the second and haven't seen the third.

This looks good.

[The Dark Knight]

haven't seen the third.

Some say it feels like a TV movie, but I still think it has a fair share of good moments going on. For example, the 'cold opening' sequence is brilliant. One hell of a way to open a movie and possibly my favourite. Ever. And I'm serious. It's very simple, but very effective. It gets things down to core human emotions and acting. Cruise sitting down in a chair in a tense hostage situation. A scene that occurs later on in the movie, but is obviously expanded upon. The question? "Where's the rabbit's foot?"

[Grissom]

Looking forward to this one, the year may go out with a bang with this one.

[riddler]

haven't seen the third.

Some say it feels like a TV movie, but I still think it has a fair share of good moments going on. For example, the 'cold opening' sequence is brilliant. One hell of a way to open a movie and possibly my favourite. Ever. And I'm serious. It's very simple, but very effective. It gets things down to core human emotions and acting. Cruise sitting down in a chair in a tense hostage situation. A scene that occurs later on in the movie, but is obviously expanded upon. The question? "Where's the rabbit's foot?"

The film itself was okay. The second film tried too hard to be cool and hip, the third was more humble but Phillip Semour Hoffman was outstanding as the villain and he had some good sequences with Cruise.

I'm getting the vibe the plot for this fourth film is too similar to the first except it's the entire IMF being framed instead of just Ethan.

[The Dark Knight]

Saw this today. I enjoyed myself. I liked Cruise beforehand, but this flick gave me even more respect for him. As always he does the action, and some of the stuff is crazy. He had serious guts to go outside of the world's tallest building in Dubai and perform what he does. And as an actor, I rate him. I don't care what people say, he's a real movie star and this series wouldn't exist without him. The gadgets in this flick are inventive. I don't think I should say what they are, because when I first saw them I was pleasantly surprised, thinking the gadget era was worn out, replaced by iPhone apps. Overall, director Brad Bird offers a fun, breezy film, where it's not all dark and gritty which seems to be the trend recently. I have nostalgia for the first MI film, so at the moment I'll rate Ghost Protocol second in the series.

[BatmAngelus]

I enjoyed this one.  I'm not sure if it was better than the first movie (which still has the tightest plot) or the third movie (which gave a lot more emotional depth to Ethan Hunt than the previous movies), but it was worth watching. 

Small Spoilers:
What I really liked is that for the first time in the franchise, each team member has some kind of emotional issue to grapple with while they were going on the mission, whether it's getting over the trauma of losing someone or being new to the field or overcoming guilt.  This is something that I always wanted to see in a M:I film.  I definitely wouldn't mind having the same team in the next one.

I also loved that the iconic "light the fuse" opening was incorporated into the story in a small way.  I was actually thinking this week that a Mission Impossible film should do that.

The Dubai sequence was my favorite and Cruise's ascent up the building in IMAX was great.  When he looks down the building, you feel like you're standing on the edge with him, too.

The villains didn't have much of a role in this one, but since I've never been too crazy about the Mission: Impossible villains, I wasn't expecting much.  While I liked the reversal of having the bad guy be the one wearing a mask this time rather than Ethan, it always seemed to me like the IMF alone had that "face cloning" technology.  Did this guy steal IMF tech or is this just a world in which anyone can do that?
I guess I should be glad, though, that there wasn't yet another rogue IMF operative as one of the villains.  After Phelps in M:I, Ambrose in M:I-II, and Musgrave in M:I-III, I think they should stop having traitors in the rest of these movies.

Fans of the first movie- Did anyone else think that Vanessa Redgrave's Max would come back?  The long-haired blond man on the boat who handed Ethan the ski mask was the same guy who took him to see Max in the first movie.  Since Max was established as an arms dealer, too, I thought for sure she'd be in the next scene, but alas, I was wrong.

Lastly, as a fan of the television series, I loved that they threw in a reference to The Syndicate at the end.  Perhaps a Syndicate member will be a villain in the next movie.