Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol- A one look pony..

For those of you who have seen the previous installment of the Mission Impossible series, Mi:III, and who enjoyed that entry, may find a different feel to the newest installment, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. For starters, JJ Abrams didn't direct this, he "produced" it, which can mean a great many things in terms of how much control or fine tuning he had on the final product. Add to it a new director, Brad Bird, and you have a very different feel for this film compared to the last. That's good and bad in my opinion.

Let's start with the good. The action scenes don't let up, everything is choreographed beautifully, and in a way you're not going to feel sick from trying to keep up with what's being punched, kicked, or thrown out of a window on the screen. Brad Bird shot this film's action scenes in the best way possible, so he gets top billing for that in my book. Even the opening scene has a certain charm to it, with Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt character having to break out of a Russian prison, and I won't spoil what gives it that extra zeal. I would even go as far as saying fans of the original 60s TV series, may sense the same vibe of the classic show in spades throughout this film. Even Michael Giacchino's soundtrack truly pays homage to the classic TV series in a big way. These are all nice touches, but I still came away from this film feeling it missed some things that made the third entry work so well.

So what did it miss? This film lacked that emotional resonance the third one had, and I think that was due in part because Ethan Hunt didn't have his wife to directly worry about as the course of the film went on. Her character was essentially written out of this installment, and only mentioned a few times. There wasn't that major payoff like you had in the last film where Hunt and his wife go to hell and back together and win. Secondly, the films main villains in this were no names compared to the kind of acting chops brought to the table by Philip Seymour Hoffman's villain in the last film. That was the final nail in the coffin preventing me from giving this movie full marks. Every action film has to have that definitive alpha male villain, without it, it prevents it from reaching greatness status. Every classic action film has had them in the past, this one did not!

However, it's definitely worth an evening, and one bowl of popcorn. The action sequences alone hold this baby together, even without a big emotional payoff in the end. Getting to see Tom Cruise act crazy and (no stunt doubles, really!) scale the worlds tallest building in Dubai warrants 2 hours of your time.  Nuff said.