Tom Cruise finally found the winning director for the M:I franchise. Brad Bird, the director of several wacky Pixar flicks including The Incredibles and Ratatouille finally made a decent Mission: Impossible movie.
A little sad history: Brian De Palma directed the first installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise which was totally muddled. The plot was a gordian knot with trite special effects and anachronistic computer screen shots. Greg Morris, who played Barney Collier in the seven-season original series walked out of the theater early because it sucked so bad.
Action director John Woo, who made some terrific Hong Kong action movies with Chow Yun Fat (The Killer and Hardboiled, go see them if you've not seen them yet) was tapped to do the sequel. While the plot was slightly more coherent, Woo was probably told by the studio to tamp down on the violence, so it was peegee-thirteenafied while maintaining some balletic actions that Woo is known for. There, we had the dancing cars, the flying motorcycles and over-the-top gun fights. But still, it was a Tom Cruise vehicle as opposed to a team of IMF agents. Again, this sequel mis-used the mask concept, still showed anachronistic use of computers and overdid the violence.
The original series relied on brains over brawn. Another mystique of the original series was the ability of the IMF team to get out of trouble. Not everything they did ran like clockwork and they had to improvise. The lack of improvisation (and sometime subsequent failure) made the Tom Cruise produced movies too unconvincing.
After the critical failure of Woo, Cruise tapped the next director, J.J. Abrams, fresh off of making the hit TV series, Alias. Cruise probably figured that Alias was as close to the original Mission Impossible concept and if J.J. can make a happening series with Alias, maybe he can make magic with the M:I franchise. Aside from it being a very forgettable sequel, M:I-3 did have some memorable scenes and paid sincere homage to the original series. The plot element of bringing Ethan Hunt back from dead was too much, though.
But now, Ghost Protocol is a winner. Plot is clear, not completely tied up in knots, like the first one. The violence level is minimal, compared to the second one. And the best part? The best part is that the crew had to improvise, and improvise several times. And like some of the Pixar movies, you never knew how it was going to end. Once you thought the ending was going to be such-and-such, no, Brad drags you along in this wild roller coaster ride to the next drop. Whee! Then again to another drop. You think they got the good in Dubai. Nope, then off to Mumbai. Got it working in that fancy hotel? Almost, but not quite. Then, holy-moly, the bad guys (*spoiler alert*) actually launched the missile. What? What's that supposed to mean? Get to the uplink server room? Got it. Oops, all the cables have been torn out. Oops. The power's switched off and, dammit, where's the power supply room? There it is, but the bad guy's there to beat up on one of the agents. Meanwhile, the critical brief case is flying around in a automated garage like that scene from the first Toy Story where the toys go into the baggage trackers of the airport.
That damned briefcase had more lives than a cat, bouncing from one level to the next. Finally, Cruise as Ethan Hunt opens up the brief case and aborts the missile. Oops, not quite. Power is still out to send that signal. A little bang-bang and the missile harmlessly knocks off a piece of the Transamerica Pyramid before falling into the Bay (you know which bay).
A fun movie. I think Brad is going to be doing M:I-5 and it'll be coming up within two years. Maybe Ving Rhames will return as Luther in a more substantial role?
Action director John Woo, who made some terrific Hong Kong action movies with Chow Yun Fat (The Killer and Hardboiled, go see them if you've not seen them yet) was tapped to do the sequel. While the plot was slightly more coherent, Woo was probably told by the studio to tamp down on the violence, so it was peegee-thirteenafied while maintaining some balletic actions that Woo is known for. There, we had the dancing cars, the flying motorcycles and over-the-top gun fights. But still, it was a Tom Cruise vehicle as opposed to a team of IMF agents. Again, this sequel mis-used the mask concept, still showed anachronistic use of computers and overdid the violence.
The original series relied on brains over brawn. Another mystique of the original series was the ability of the IMF team to get out of trouble. Not everything they did ran like clockwork and they had to improvise. The lack of improvisation (and sometime subsequent failure) made the Tom Cruise produced movies too unconvincing.
After the critical failure of Woo, Cruise tapped the next director, J.J. Abrams, fresh off of making the hit TV series, Alias. Cruise probably figured that Alias was as close to the original Mission Impossible concept and if J.J. can make a happening series with Alias, maybe he can make magic with the M:I franchise. Aside from it being a very forgettable sequel, M:I-3 did have some memorable scenes and paid sincere homage to the original series. The plot element of bringing Ethan Hunt back from dead was too much, though.
But now, Ghost Protocol is a winner. Plot is clear, not completely tied up in knots, like the first one. The violence level is minimal, compared to the second one. And the best part? The best part is that the crew had to improvise, and improvise several times. And like some of the Pixar movies, you never knew how it was going to end. Once you thought the ending was going to be such-and-such, no, Brad drags you along in this wild roller coaster ride to the next drop. Whee! Then again to another drop. You think they got the good in Dubai. Nope, then off to Mumbai. Got it working in that fancy hotel? Almost, but not quite. Then, holy-moly, the bad guys (*spoiler alert*) actually launched the missile. What? What's that supposed to mean? Get to the uplink server room? Got it. Oops, all the cables have been torn out. Oops. The power's switched off and, dammit, where's the power supply room? There it is, but the bad guy's there to beat up on one of the agents. Meanwhile, the critical brief case is flying around in a automated garage like that scene from the first Toy Story where the toys go into the baggage trackers of the airport.
That damned briefcase had more lives than a cat, bouncing from one level to the next. Finally, Cruise as Ethan Hunt opens up the brief case and aborts the missile. Oops, not quite. Power is still out to send that signal. A little bang-bang and the missile harmlessly knocks off a piece of the Transamerica Pyramid before falling into the Bay (you know which bay).
A fun movie. I think Brad is going to be doing M:I-5 and it'll be coming up within two years. Maybe Ving Rhames will return as Luther in a more substantial role?
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