Mission: Impossible -Ghost Protocol

I gave up on the Mission Impossible franchise. They lost me on the very first film back in 1996, when they made Jim Phelps (played by Jon Voight) an IMF traitor and a double agent. The Jim Phelps I knew from the TV series, played by Peter Graves, would never betray his country. This was an outrage! The films redeeming grace was Tom Cruise in a strong performance and Brian De Palma's directing.

The John Woo directed Mission: Impossible II and created a bloated and stylized mess. Dougray Scott starred as  an IMF traitor and double agent. Are you sensing a trend? Again Tom Cruise gave an excellent performance as Ethan Hunt, but the rest of the film was  one slow motion action shot after another. It seemed silly and pretentious.

Director J.J. Abrams brought some class back to the series with Mission: Impossible III, and Philip Seymour Hoffman was a great villain, but the script lacked originality. Would you belive another IMF agent (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) was a revealed to be a traitor and a double agent. I mean really! How well do they screen people before being allowed to join the Impossible Mission Force? Again Tom cruise gave a solid performance but after three films the franchise was already showing its age.

So when I heard they were making another film this time starring both Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner I saw it as a lame attempt by paramount to reboot the franchise and hand it off to Renner. Instead directed Brad Bird (Pixar) reinvented, reinvigorated and restored the film series to what it should have been from day one; a thrilling edge of your seat spy caper full of intrigue cons, gadgets and cool disguises. Cruise had a script he could bite his teeth into and Bird created set pieces that were new and original, including dazzling stunts on the outside of the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai and a dizzying fight inside a parking garage in Mumbai.

Mission; Impossible 4 is all action from the moment the film opens. the film is not bogged down by inter-personal conflicts and a writer's or director's need to add a love interest to the mix.

Cruise is excellent. he embodies super spy Ethan Hunt the same way Daniel Craig embodies the new James Bond. His support team played by Renner and Paula Patton add just the right balance and Simon Pegg is perfect as the newly promoted field agent who provides just the right balance of comic relief.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol caught me by surprise. I went to see it because it was free and it was playing in IMAX. I had low expectations and found myself on the edge of my seat as the 2 hour and 18 minute adventure rushed by.

Rating Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol ***1/2 (the best of the Mission: Impossible series)