Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - Review

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - Review

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is the franchise's most consistently enjoyable entry and the film that elevated the series from a critically respected action franchise into a genuine global blockbuster phenomenon. Brad Bird's 2011 film is not the franchise's most dramatically serious entry, but it is its most exhilarating, a work of such complete action filmmaking craft and comic invention that it makes the experience of watching it feel thrilling from its opening sequence to its final frame. It gives the ensemble a dynamic and chemistry that would define the series' identity for the decade that followed. Ghost Protocol is the franchise at its most purely fun, and it achieves that distinction with a completeness and craft that makes the experience genuinely satisfying.

At a Glance

Director: Brad Bird
Runtime: 133 minutes
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist
Release: 2011
Critics Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5 stars, the franchise's most consistently enjoyable entry)
Audience Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5 stars, a blockbuster landmark)

Review Breakdown

Plot

The IMF is disavowed after being framed for the bombing of the Kremlin, and Hunt's team must operate without institutional support to stop a nuclear strategist named Hendricks from triggering a nuclear war. The plot uses the disavowal premise as a vehicle for stripping the team of their technological advantages and forcing them to improvise with the resources available, a structural decision of real intelligence that gives the ensemble's collective resourcefulness a genuine dramatic justification. The Burj Khalifa sequence is the film's most celebrated set-piece, a demonstration of practical filmmaking of such extraordinary physical clarity and dramatic consequence that it remains the standard against which all subsequent franchise set-pieces are measured.

Characters

Hunt is given the franchise's most ensemble-focused treatment, a character whose capability is balanced against the collective intelligence of his team with a generosity and wit that makes the ensemble dynamic the film's greatest creative achievement. Cruise plays the character with a conviction and comic self-awareness that makes Hunt feel compelling and enjoyable simultaneously. Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn is the film's most significant character development, a technician elevated to field agent status whose comic energy and warmth give the ensemble its most purely enjoyable presence. Jeremy Renner's William Brandt is the film's most dramatically interesting new addition, a character of capability and moral complexity whose backstory gives the picture a secondary thread of real interest. Paula Patton's Jane Carter is the film's most dramatically underserved major character, a woman of considerable capability and screen presence who is given insufficient material to match the depth of the ensemble's other members.

Tone

Bird pitches the film at a register of spectacular action and comic invention, and the approach is wholly successful. Ghost Protocol has a lightness and wit the franchise's more dramatically serious entries never pursued, using the ensemble's collective chemistry and Bird's command of comic timing to create an experience of entertainment that never sacrifices the physical credibility of its action sequences for the sake of its comic register.

Meaning / Themes

At its core, the film is about institutional support and individual capability, about the technological advantages the IMF provides and the resourcefulness the team must demonstrate when those advantages are removed. The disavowal premise gives the ensemble's collective improvisation a dramatic justification that makes their increasingly improbable solutions feel earned rather than merely spectacular.

Direction

Bird's direction is the franchise's most visually inventive to that point, with a command of the global settings and a feel for the film's spectacular visual register that makes Ghost Protocol the most consistently enjoyable entry in the series. The Burj Khalifa sequence is the film's directorial masterpiece, a demonstration of practical action filmmaking of such complete spatial intelligence and physical daring that it stands among the finest action sequences in the franchise's history. The Mumbai sequence is the film's most purely comic directorial achievement, a set-piece of considerable visual invention and timing. Michael Giacchino's score builds on the established themes with a propulsive energy and wit that suits the more overtly entertaining register.

Cultural Reception

Ghost Protocol was a major critical and commercial triumph on its release, becoming the franchise's highest-grossing entry to that point and receiving near-universal critical acclaim. It is now consistently ranked among the finest action films of its decade and as the entry that redefined the Mission: Impossible franchise as a global blockbuster institution.

Who Should Watch

Everyone, without reservation. Ghost Protocol works as a standalone film and as a franchise entry, and the Burj Khalifa sequence is essential viewing for anyone with an interest in practical action filmmaking. Those who found the franchise's more dramatically serious entries too intense will find a film of considerably more comic energy and purely enjoyable entertainment.

Final Verdict: The franchise's most consistently enjoyable entry and the film that redefined the series as a global blockbuster institution. Pegg's Benji is the franchise's finest new character to that point, the Burj Khalifa sequence stands among the finest action sequences in the franchise's history, and Bird's direction gives the material a visual invention and comic intelligence the franchise had not previously achieved. Ghost Protocol is the franchise at its most exhilarating, and in its own way, at its most genuinely impressive.

The Mission: Impossible Series

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