Mission: Impossible series- Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol review

As I said with the last Mission: Impossible film, the series seems to be going on a up hill slant that is continued by Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol (2011). Now from the films I've seen so far in the series this films is the best one as it has massive stakes to the main characters and a thrilling plot that has non- stop action till the end.

The film starts of with Hunt being rescued from a Russian Prison by a IMF team lead by Benji (Simon Pegg). After accepting a mission to steal something from the Kremlin, however the plan backfires with the bombing of the Kremlin which cause huge tensions between the US and Russia. As a result of this the IMF goes under something called Ghost Protocol which means they are shut down with Ethan and the new team to find out who bombed the Kremlin and to clear the IMF's name.

The director of this film is Brad Bird who is well known for animated movies like the Incredibles 1 and 2, Ratatouille and the Iron Giant. Brad is known for character driven films like the Incredibles, he uses this experience in Ghost Protocol as each member of the team have a motive for each action they do in the film especially as on of the minor villains deeply effects Agent Jane Carter (Paula Patton) as they killed some one she was close with. These motives make us feel connected to these team members more than any other Mission: Impossible film.

The film as a lot of great action set pieces like Hunt climbing up Burg Khalifa in Dubai (the tallest building in the world) in order to get to the server room to help Benji set up the cameras to help acquire the nuclear codes stolen from the Kremlin. The third act in the car park was well shot and choreographed also the car chase in the sandstorm was a memorable set piece in the film which was very suspenseful. Jeremy Renner does a good performance as Brandt a former field agent turned secretary after the supposed death of Hunts wife Julia. The villain Hendricks is a step us from Hoffman's Davien as he is always one step a head of Hunt and his team making us wonder if the team will stop him in time.

However there are some small things that bugged me or in my opinion could have changed. Lea Sedyoux's Sabine Moreau could have had a bit more screen time as she seemed to be a good foil for the IMF team as she already killed one of the team. However in my opinion she was killed off far too early and if felt like she shouldn't really have been in the movie at all. Also the fact that Benji was almost like Luther's replacement for the film bugged me a little. I never talked about Simon Pegg's role in the third film manly because it was very minor and in this film he gets a much bigger role as he graduates from field training and is now a field agent. In my Opinion although Simon Pegg did a really good performance, Benji is not the same as Luther. Although to be fair to this Luther has a small cameo at the end of the film.

Overall I would give Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol a 8/10- A suspenseful story that has massive stakes not just for Hunt and his team but the whole IMF organisation and a villain who always his one step ahead, however there might have been a few characters that could have been removed.

Mission: Impossible series: Mission: Impossible 3 review

After the last M:I film I was, my hopes for me getting into this series seemed to be getting slimmer. Although I enjoyed the first M:I film is wasn't an amazing movie and its sequel seemed a bit more like a total reboot with the same title character. This all changed when I saw Mission: Impossible 3 (2006), although not the greatest film I've ever seen, it is probably (at this point) the best since the first film.

Based six years after the second film, Ethan seems to be semi- retired from the IMF and is about to get married to his fiancée Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Ethan is sent on a rescue mission, to save agent Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) in order to find out more information on arms dealer Owen Davien (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Hunt and his team reduce Farris but unfortunately she dies while they escape the warehouse meaning they failed the mission. However they learnt that Davien is trying to acquire something known as the Rabbits Foot which Hunt needs to prevent.

This time the films director this time round is J.J Abrams, who is known for directing Star Wars episodes 7 and 9, The Star Trek reboot, as well as producing popular TV series Lost. Abrams would have a producer credit in all other films in the series as his company 'Bad Robot' would have a hand in all future instalments after this. Abrams directs this movie almost like if the first movie was made in 2006 instead of 10 years before. 

The performances in the film are great, with the usual's Cruise and Rhames being great at playing Hunt and Luther, the new team are likeable feel like fleshed out characters for amount of time we see them for. Keri Russell does a good performance for little material she is given, Phillip Hoffman does a good performance as Davien and make the character one of the better villains the series has so far. 


The things I like about this movie is that Hunt has personal stakes again as Davien threatens to go after Julia. Davien seems to be one of the better villains so far as he smart and calculating and has a back up for everything making him a dangerous individual. Hunt seems to be more like his first film self as he's smart and improvised alot (although he did that in the other two films as well). The scenes between Hunt and Davien are well shot and feel very tense, and example of this can be found when Davien threatens to shoot Julia if Hunt gave up the location of the Rabbits Foot.


However there are some things I didn't like. Although I said I like the other two team members, I don't remember there names, this isn't just a problem with this film it seems to be with every film so far. However the later movies seem to fix this problem, also the twist in this movie comes too late in the film in my opinion and it makes it worst that was a bluff made by Musgrave (Billy Crudup) and as a result the third act seems a little rushed to the end.

Overall I would give Mission: Impossible 3 a 7/10: A good plot, with massive stakes for the lead character. However felt a little rushed near the end.

Mission: Impossible series: Mission: Impossible 2 review

Now that I have reviewed the first film in the series, the day after I saw the sequel Mission: Impossible 2 (2000). In my opinion, I didn't think that the sequel was a good movie. I'll admit the series so far hasn't impressed me as much as I thought it would have but there's enough time for that to change with the other movies in the series.

The film takes place 4 years after the first with Hunt being sent on a mission by Commander Swanbeck (Anthony Hopkins)  to stop a disease called 'Chimera' that has the potential to wipe-out the whole of Australia and if large enough the world. In order to do this he is allowed to recruit a team but one of them has to be Nyah Hall (Thandie Newton) the ex of the main villain Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott).

This time round the films director is John Woo who is known for doing Face/Off staring Nicholas Cage and John Travolta and plenty of Chinese films in the 80's. Personally, I preferred De Palma's direction in the first film as it was suspenseful tense spy thriller and is quite a unique film for it's time. But Woo's vision seems to be almost like Hunt it the American equivalent to James Bond (which could be true). I now future films take this direction going forward but to me I preferred the thriller the first movie was, as it was something different. However this could be the direction Paramount wanted for the series as well so I guess it could be 50/50.

I've said quite a few negatives so far so I'll go on to the good moments that the movie has to offer. Cruise does a good performance as Hunt and Ving Rhames also does a good performance as Luther the only character aside from Hunt that returns from the first one. I never talked about Luther in my review of the first film but I like the character and interested to see him back in other movies. The fight choreography is good, you can see John Woo's Asian influence there. Also the scene where Hunt tries to destroy all the remaining copies of the virus was well shot with it playing similarly to the first film with no music in the background with complete silence with Ambrose walking towards Hunt giving suspense and tension to the scene.

But there are things that I didn't like. The villain wasn't as effective, although Dougray Scott does a decent performance, he comes off as a bit cartoonish and times and isn't a threat to Hunt at all. I felt that the mask unveils were really overused and a bit cliched. I know that its a staple of the series but when the first film done it, it was used to great effect especially at the third act of the film. But in the this film they just overuse it to many times and it undermines it shock value. Also I felt the whole imagery with Hunt and the white bird in the films third act to be stupid and over the top.

I would give Mission: Impossible 2 a 5/10: A generic action movie with a lack of plot,with a cartoonish, non threating villain and some over the top herioc imagery with Ethan Hunt.

Mission: Impossible series: Mission: Impossible review.

So funnily enough till recently I was probably the few people who have seen any Mission Impossible films. To be honest I haven't seen that many Tom Cruise films in general. The Mission Impossible series to me looked like one of those franchises that seemed like it probably need 4 times the movies it actually needs, a lot like the Fast and Furious movies however I keep hearing that the last few Mission Impossible movies have been some of the best the series has to offer. So I decided to watch the series from the beginning with the first film Mission: Impossible (1996).

The story focus on Ethan Hunt an agent of the Impossible Missions Force or the IMF for short. He is sent on a mission with his team lead by Jim Phelps (Jon Voight). One by one the team is killed off with Hunt being the only surviving member (although later you find out he isn't). He requests a meeting with IMF boss Kittridge (Henry Czerney) who accuse Hunt off being a mole. On the run Hunt is desperate to clear his name and find the real mole.

The film's director is Brian De Palma who is known for directing films such as dressed to a kill and the Scarface remake starring Al Pacino. This would be De Palma's only entry into the series with John Woo directing the second. De Palma brings a lot of suspense to the film which can be apparent in the scene were Hunt is copying over a list from a computer in a heavily secured room in the IMF HQ. There is no music of any kind in the scene and everyone is silent as if Hunt or any one in his team speak or make a sound then the alarms go off and the room goes on lockdown, the suspense in the scene is done really well as we can see Krieger (Jean Reno) struggling to hold Hunt from the cable he hoisted down on and a worker who has been drugged to make sure he doesn't come in while Hunt is transferring data on to a disc. This works has there are problems that can have big consequences on Hunt and his Mission and there is a threat that he must avoid as well.

The film as lot of unique shots that you wouldn't see in films any more. There are a few examples of POV (Point of View) shots that wouldn't be used like they way in this movie. This is done to establish the surrounds of were Hunt or any one from his team are. There is a scene where Hunt is in a car with an arms dealer called Max (Vanessa Redgrave), you can see they are in a car in a studio with a green screen but they make the car rock a bit to give the effect of the car going over the speed bump. There is another seen near the end of the film where Hunt is on the top of a train and needs to stop Phelps and Krieger from escaping, although again this done on a green screen they must have had a big fan to give the effect of the train passing through the wind and its quite effective.

However although there a lot of clever techniques used to great effect. I have to talk about the things that in my opinion drag the movie down. For me it was mainly the team at the beginning of the film as they are established well enough but to me they didn't really do much in the mission that i would feel a little emotional to each of them dying, to be fair to this some did more that others like Harmon (Emilio Estevez) who controls the elevator but even then we don't get them to interact with Hunt that much for me to feel connected to them. Also some of the effects are a little crappy but it was the late 90's so I think I'll let that slide.

Overall, I would give Mission Impossible a 7/10: A decent plot with massive stakes for the lead character, but can feel a little hard to follow at times.