Director: Brad Bird; Screenwriter: J.J. Abrams, Josh Applebaum; Starring: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Josh Holloway; Running time: 132 mins; Certificate: 12A
Call it the Reverse Samson Effect, but whenever Tom Cruise sports a long mane as Ethan Hunt the movie fails to impress. Although not as dismal as M:I 2, the latest outing for the superspy fails to consistently engage despite some very hair-raising set pieces from The Incredibles director Brad Bird in his first live action outing.
Ghost Protocol falls flat largely as a result of a confused narrative that revolves around Hunt and his team going rogue following the closure of his Impossible Missions Force after it is blamed for a devastating attack on the Kremlin. In typical globetrotting style, Hunt seeks to uncover the real source for the attack and prevent further terrorist attacks.
Assisting him on his quest is Jeremy Renner's shady analyst William, Paula Patton's sultry operative Jane and Simon Pegg's tedious technical agent Benji. Given the absence of a dynamic story, structure or pace, none of these capable actors make much of an impression.
To his credit, Brad Bird has tried to imbue the movie with a gritty visual texture and a deadly serious tone. With the real world in some serious bother right now, this does engender a fittingly contemporaneous feel to events. But sadly, it all feels like window dressing given the script issues.
The decision to film significant chunks of the movie specifically for IMAX screens certainly heightens the spectacle of the set pieces, with a vertiginous skyscraper climb and sandstorm chase sequence standing out. It also serves to immerse the viewer into Ethan's precarious predicament, although the thrills are not sustained beyond those isolated moments.
In between the action, there is little to enjoy or enthrall due to the lack of a cohesive narrative to bind the disparate events together. It becomes extremely messy in the last act, with new plot strands being thrown into the equation in a bid to ramp up the stakes - but succeeding in losing focus instead.
Simon Pegg's presence as Benji, expanded from the previous movie, is clearly designed to provide comic relief. It doesn't. The character turns out to be a massive irritant that largely consists of Mr Bean style facial mugging and clanging one-liners. At one point Ethan Hunt, while undercover as a General, barks at him in Russian: "Just shut it!" Spot on.
Tom Cruise still retains his star power and appealing physicality in the lead role, yet four films in - just where is the characterisation for Ethan Hunt? He feels more like a nondescript cipher, an empty vessel carrying out tasks like a video game character.
Of course, it could be argued that Ethan is largely detached from an emotional existence due to the nature of his work, but Cruise could and should have been given a few more dramatic morsels of personality to seize upon in the script.
After the infectious fun of JJ Abrams' M:I 3, which sparkled with the wit and charm of his espionage series Alias, the fourth instalment is a thudding disappointment. It required a far stronger premise than one which lends itself to the title Mission: Irrelevant.
Call it the Reverse Samson Effect, but whenever Tom Cruise sports a long mane as Ethan Hunt the movie fails to impress. Although not as dismal as M:I 2, the latest outing for the superspy fails to consistently engage despite some very hair-raising set pieces from The Incredibles director Brad Bird in his first live action outing.
Ghost Protocol falls flat largely as a result of a confused narrative that revolves around Hunt and his team going rogue following the closure of his Impossible Missions Force after it is blamed for a devastating attack on the Kremlin. In typical globetrotting style, Hunt seeks to uncover the real source for the attack and prevent further terrorist attacks.
Assisting him on his quest is Jeremy Renner's shady analyst William, Paula Patton's sultry operative Jane and Simon Pegg's tedious technical agent Benji. Given the absence of a dynamic story, structure or pace, none of these capable actors make much of an impression.
To his credit, Brad Bird has tried to imbue the movie with a gritty visual texture and a deadly serious tone. With the real world in some serious bother right now, this does engender a fittingly contemporaneous feel to events. But sadly, it all feels like window dressing given the script issues.
The decision to film significant chunks of the movie specifically for IMAX screens certainly heightens the spectacle of the set pieces, with a vertiginous skyscraper climb and sandstorm chase sequence standing out. It also serves to immerse the viewer into Ethan's precarious predicament, although the thrills are not sustained beyond those isolated moments.
In between the action, there is little to enjoy or enthrall due to the lack of a cohesive narrative to bind the disparate events together. It becomes extremely messy in the last act, with new plot strands being thrown into the equation in a bid to ramp up the stakes - but succeeding in losing focus instead.
Simon Pegg's presence as Benji, expanded from the previous movie, is clearly designed to provide comic relief. It doesn't. The character turns out to be a massive irritant that largely consists of Mr Bean style facial mugging and clanging one-liners. At one point Ethan Hunt, while undercover as a General, barks at him in Russian: "Just shut it!" Spot on.
Tom Cruise still retains his star power and appealing physicality in the lead role, yet four films in - just where is the characterisation for Ethan Hunt? He feels more like a nondescript cipher, an empty vessel carrying out tasks like a video game character.
Of course, it could be argued that Ethan is largely detached from an emotional existence due to the nature of his work, but Cruise could and should have been given a few more dramatic morsels of personality to seize upon in the script.
After the infectious fun of JJ Abrams' M:I 3, which sparkled with the wit and charm of his espionage series Alias, the fourth instalment is a thudding disappointment. It required a far stronger premise than one which lends itself to the title Mission: Irrelevant.
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