Style over Substance

Rating: 4/10 (22 December 2011)

Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol follows Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and crew Benji (Pegg), Carter (Patton), and Brandt (Renner), as they attempt to thwart super secret agent, physicist, and psycho, Hendricks (Nyqvist) in his attempts to start a nuclear semi-apocalypse.
To be to-the-point, this movie lacks the substance of the first and, instead relies upon effects and protracted action scenes. The plot follows the standard formula of chasing down launch codes and stopping catastrophe at the last minute. The movie simply moves from location to location with frustrating near misses driving the globe-trotting. The scenery was definitely beautiful and the filming had a grand feel, but unlike MI3, I wasn't intrigued enough to care about what was happening. After a while, I just wanted it to reach its inevitable conclusion.
The characters and their motives were also lacking. Carter was angry over the loss of a partner and hinted love interest and could not control herself—kind of the weak woman stereotype. Brandt was relegated to the position of analyst for a mysterious reason that seemed like it would be shocking—it wasn't. Benji's character reminded me of Jar Jar Binx (probably misspelled). Benji would talk so much throughout the movie as the "comic relief" and maybe 5% of it was enjoyable. I really liked the Sidorov character, but they didn't really follow through on him. Tom Cruise played a consistent, well acted, angry/distracted Ethan Hunt. Wistrom was a Bond villain and was not nearly as cleaver and unlikeable as Davian from MI3.
The scenes that were amazing and fun included the Prison scene from the beginning, the hospital, and the entire Dubai section. The gadgets were over-used. The magnet shirt, sci-fi train car, sci-fi super car, and projection wall were just too much to have in the same movie. The characters and story were clumsily thrown together around the effects and made me laugh for the wrong reasons—especially the ridiculously dumb ending with cameos from people that should have been left out if only given that much screen time.
If you liked MI3 for the plot, characters, suspense, and excellent action (expected from Abrams), you will likely find this entry to be a rich man's Mission: Impossible 2. I would personally only recommend this movie in IMAX, or while drunk, or both.