Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol Review

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is a 2011 action spy film directed by Brad Bird and starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg. It is such an improvement over its predecessors.

The reason why this fourth film works better than usual is because it does have at least some plot. The plot is not only present, but also often pretty interesting to follow. The various locations they visit are beautiful to watch and there are many really entertaining sequences here. It is undoubtedly very engaging and fun to watch.

But it still disappointed me as the second half and mostly the third act is very uninspired. Whereas the film was engaging before, it later on became pretty boring and typical. That was unfortunate because if it hadn’t run out of steam, it would have been a pretty good movie. But because of that, it ended up being just solid. But that is still much better than is expected for this franchise which is why the movie still satisfied me.

The character development is much improved in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Ethan Hunt continues to be boring, but at least we get some memorable supporting characters this time around. Brandt is pretty good and his backstory is interesting, Benji is quite likable and I really liked the female characters as well. But the film succeeds mostly because of the character interactions which are unexpectedly good for an action flick.

The acting is also quite solid. I liked Jeremy Renner quite a bit here even though he plays a typical Renner character. Tom Cruise is good as is Paula Patton, but Simon Pegg is likable and of course it is always nice to see Lea Seydoux who is such a good actress.

The Russian and the overall Slavic angle to the story annoyed me as it is so overdone by this point. But Ghost Protocol still has a solid plot and some scenes are very memorable. The highlights of course are the skyscraper action scene and everything afterwards is very good with the fights being well realized. And the first act also has quite good action. Yes, the action is very good here. The scenery is also pleasant as the film makes use of its settings wonderfully. The directing from Brad Bird is expectedly great, but this is still his worst movie in my opinion as most of his movies are either good or great with this one being just solid. But I still liked it and despite its weak third act, the film was surprisingly engaging to me and that I did not expect and I have to give kudos mostly to Brad Bird for that. It is of course infinitely better than ‘Mission: Impossible‘ and ‘Mission: Impossible II‘ and this is the only solid entry in the franchise along with the third film.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol does have a very disappointing third act and some annoying plot points, but it is still an immense improvement over its predecessors due to much more memorable and entertaining action, great visuals, better story and some fine character interactions leading to a solid action flick.

My Rating – 3.5