More Bond than Bourne

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2011)

Although I have this mild complaint, I give this film a rousing positive review. Brad Bird turned what was a more gritty MI:3, where Ethan's wife was being threatened, and there was a fair amount of violence, into a more light-weight roller coaster ride. This film suffers a bit from the older James Bond films, where a lot gadgetry that could not possibly really work brought down the realism of the film. The newer Bond films wisely disposed of all the gimmickry adding more gravitas to the peril our heroes are facing, such as the 'Bourne' franchise. Throughout most of this film, despite being shot and slammed against hard objects, everyone jumps back up and dusts themselves off. There is also the situation where someone could rappel down a wall with a simple rope, instead wears some magnetic suit and needs a remote rover to be driven around. I felt the film featured these electronic toys too much as a crutch for propelling the action scenes. Another mild criticism is Jeremy Renner's character. I think he deserves the accolades given to him and the film benefits from his involvement. However, knowing him as a far more tougher guy from "Hurt Locker" and "The Town", it is little hard to believe him as being a little skittish in this film. The third act gets a little over-the-top and Jeremy Renner's big secret turns out to be a little underwhelming. The handling of other character's personal lives is virtually nonexistent. One other piece of criticism that was hard to shake was the very core of the central plotÂ….Slight Spoiler ahead:
The IM team is trying to stop someone from using stolen Russian launch codes to launch a nuclear missile. Can't the Russians just change the codes?
Spoiler finished.
Now the good news. There is a great surge of energy throughout this film. It is a "blink and you miss something" type of pacing. I think the co-producer J.J. Abrams can be thanked for creating just about the right tone for a summer popcorn movie (even though it's being released in December). I enjoyed the big screen set pieces and especially enjoyed the incidental bits of setbacks and humour. For instance, there is moment where Ethan forgets to take off his goggles that has a payoff later. The action set pieces are still over-the-top, but designed in such a way as to provide maximum thrills. Normally I would go into greater depth about this film, but the truth is that there is not any award-winning observations to make. The wall-to-wall music is punchy in the right places, the cinematography is nice looking, the sound effects are well done, the acting is fine, etc. I place this as perhaps 2nd best of the franchise next to MI3, only because we get some better character development out of that one.