'Ghost Protocol' Reignites Cruise's Career and M.I. Franchise

Tom Cruise is back for a fourth go-around in the most profitable franchise of his career.

Tom Cruise might not be the box-office draw he once was, considering he has only two of his films break the century mark in five years (one of which was little more than a cameo in Tropic Thunder) and his last film to hit the 200 million dollar threshold was 2005’s War of the Worlds. Still there is one franchise keeping this mega-star alive for the past 15 years, Mission: Impossible. 

The Mission: Impossible series has undergone many changes from film to film, most notably being the constant swapping of directors. This time around, Brad Bird takes the reins from J.J. Abrams, joining Brian DePalma and John Woo as director in the latest franchise entry, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. In Ghost Protocol, Cruise steps back into the shoes of agent, Ethan Hunt, minus the aid of IMF and being accused of creating disruption between Russia and the rest of the world after an attack on the Kremlin. Fortunately for Hunt, he isn’t alone; backed up by a team to restore the balance of global peace.

Brad Bird is a wonderful choice as director for this fourth installment. Though this is his first live-action film, particularly after being hailed as an acclaimed director of animation for Disney / Pixar’s The Incredibles and Ratatouille, he is more than capable of handling such a more live medium. A majority of Ghost Protocol is action heavy, going from one set-piece after another and while it doesn’t have the intimacy with characters, it’s more than just being a flashy series of events. Hunt and his team (Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner) come off as detached from IMF, having to take matters into their own hands. There is no one they can call for help and the team has to trust one another to see the mission to the very end. The plot point moves the action along as well as the slower moments, but it’s heavily addressed.

Cruise might be considered the focal point of the franchise, being the only constant in the Mission:  Impossible equation, but here Bird constructs the film as an ensemble rather leaving Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner on the sidelines. Cruise is still in the forefront as his name alone will bring fans to see a fourth installment for the franchise, yet everyone has their moments. 

Pegg returns from Mission: Impossible III, always placed in odd situations befitting his character, while Renner comes aboard as a worthy addition, finding himself involved in a web of circumstances. The odd man out here is Michael Nyqvist, who is undeniably given credit as a fantastic actor, but the story doesn’t use him to his full potential as the villain. The same can be said about Anil Kapoor, who doesn’t have much to do and is constrained by what is actually required from the character to further along the plot.

Ghost Protocol finds strength in its numerous action sequences, always globetrotting from one area to the next, but still has adequate time to unfold a chase around Moscow or scaling the tallest building of the world in Dubai. The Dubai sequence with Cruise is definitely the highlight of the entire film as Bird shoots the exterior scaling of the building with precise tension and occasionally making the audience nauseous with birds-eye view shots. This isn’t the first time Hunt has tackled an edge of your seat danger like this. Think about the second movie’s opening. Got a good picture of that? And top that scene off, Cruise scales the building with the technological gloves just like Iron Man. But as much as the Dubai sequence deserves to be endlessly praised, the third act is a sharp decline in quality rushing to the climax after a well paced first two acts. It’s tolerable, but Bird could’ve given some breathing room to those final 20-25 minutes.

As long as Tom Cruise remains part of the Mission: Impossible franchise, the series will continue to have profound life, even with 5-6 years between films. But as Ghost Protocol showed, it’s not just about Cruise, but having a team and a situation that keeps audiences coming back for more. For a franchise that might have not seen the light of day after the third movie, the series is rejuvenated once more with a sequel matching its predecessor on every level.

GRADE: A- (9/10)
This review is also available on Blu-Ray.com