Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (MI4)

[Jorpho]

This was a surprisingly enjoyable movie! I caught it at the local repertory theater recently. 'Tis the live-action directorial debut of Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Iron Giant), dontcha know.

It might even be the best movie of the four. The first one was just confusing; the second one was very Woo, and the third one just didn't leave too much of an impression on me.

I felt like posting about it here because I felt the urge to comment on the ending (and this isn't much of a spoiler), in which we are expected to believe that this giant stock-component communications system can cold-boot nigh-instantaneously. It's a funny thing to be bothered about, perhaps, though one of the niceties of the film is that, not unlike the first Iron Man, magical whizbang technology is shown to actually have a possibility of failing, which makes it odd that something that is not magical whizbang technology should be the thing that functions improbably well.

[Chen]

It was entertaining but I definitely had some issues with it:

Spoiler:

The whole side story about Ethan's wife seemed pointless and tacked on. I know it was to try and get some character building for the new guy but I don't find it worked well at all.

Also at the end why did the bad guy jump off the ledge with the briefcase, when he could just as easily have just thrown the briefcase down. That way it still makes Ethan have to get down there somehow, BUT he's still alive to try and stop him. The way he did it was just dumb.

[Adacore]

It didn't do that much for me, which was disappointing, but I think I have unreasonably high expectations for MI films. Basically I don't really want an action film, I want an espionage/heist type movie, and that's just not the direction the series is going. The finale, for me, shouldn't be a big action-movie-fight-sequence, but an elaborate heist/deception sequence.

Spoiler:

And the locations chosen for the 4th movie partly felt like they'd been selected to make the audience say 'wow, isn't that location amazing', rather than any useful plot value. Burj Dubai made some sense for the rendezvous, I guess, but that automated parking garage in Mumbai ruined my suspension of disbelief: even in wealthy areas of India, the chances of randomly finding something like that are just so infinitessimal that it felt really contrived.

I loved the first MI film (even if I did have to watch it 2-3 times to understand what the hell was going on, I'd prefer more movies like that than just mindless action); the third was ok (it had some great set-pieces), this one and the second one were pretty 'meh' for me. Probably if I'd gone in with zero expectations, though, I would've really liked it.

[The Moomin]

I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't been at the Imax and got motion sickness during it. It does seem to have been more jokey than the other three, but I'm wanting to see it on dvd where I won't get sick.

[Jorpho]

It didn't do that much for me, which was disappointing, but I think I have unreasonably high expectations for MI films. Basically I don't really want an action film, I want an espionage/heist type movie, and that's just not the direction the series is going. The finale, for me, shouldn't be a big action-movie-fight-sequence, but an elaborate heist/deception sequence.

On the other hand, at least it was more vaguely like a "team effort" this time rather than Tom Cruise as James Bond. Simon Pegg earned his paycheck, says I.

[StevenR]

It didn't do that much for me, which was disappointing, but I think I have unreasonably high expectations for MI films. Basically I don't really want an action film, I want an espionage/heist type movie, and that's just not the direction the series is going. The finale, for me, shouldn't be a big action-movie-fight-sequence, but an elaborate heist/deception sequence.

On the other hand, at least it was more vaguely like a "team effort" this time rather than Tom Cruise as James Bond. Simon Pegg earned his paycheck, says I.

The team effort approach is what was missing from the other films, but I think the disappointment I've had in the series is it really is a generic spy shoot-em-up James Bond clone. The TV show was fantastic in that they did all their stuff, did the set up, recovered from the complications, caused whatever double cross was necessary for the bad guys to make, met the objectives, and got away without ever firing a shot. The goal was to not be noticed, not to fly through a Paris railroad tunnel on a fireball after blowing up a chopper with chewing gum.