Pretty terrible

Rating: 4/10 (6 January 2012)

I for the life of me cannot understand all the positive reviews for this film . The action was OK , the plot was completely non-existent as was the villain. Personally the first mission impossible remains the strongest in my view and the 3rd in the series whilst being far from a classic was passable mainly due to Phillip Seymour Hoffman (I will not mention the second for obvious reasons!!).
The film starts off well enough and after a high octane prison break our familiar hero Ethan Hunt is whisked into another impossible mission which results in his and his IMF team being disavowed (already sounds like familiar territory) . Along with Cruise Simon Pegg returns and is solid enough providing the comic relief they are joined by Jeremy Renner who feels vastly underused and lost in this material which is quite frankly beneath him. The gadgets become exceedingly ridiculous as the film goes they are used so much they fail to impress at all.
The last third of the film is where it really falls away completely and the final scene with cruise and Renner where a ludicrous sub story involving Hunt's supposedly dead wife is resolved feels so contrived and clichéd I was praying for the credits to roll.
Personally Mission Impossible 4 is indicative of the blockbuster action film today (barring a few eg Dark Knight), lots of product placement and ipads but zero substance and originality .