Mission Impossible series gets even more implausible

The Mission: Impossible movies used to be about dramatic set pieces, intrigue and clever twists due to some interesting special effects.

At least, that’s how it was for the first of the series that arrived 15 years ago. The Brian de Palma original – based on the classic TV series – had as its defining feature its ability to constantly surprise and entertain the audience.

The new reality of Mission: Impossible still has an interesting set piece or two, for sure, but its defining feature is more about outrageous stunts, all performed outrageously by the star. If anyone had any doubts that Tom Cruise is crazy for proving his ability and willingness to step outside of anyone’s comfort zone, all for the sake of a mundane two-bit role, then certainly Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol will put those doubts to rest.

This new chapter in the superspy storybook starts with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) getting broken out of a Moscow prison in order to rescue a vital contact. Hunt, along with Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) are then instructed to infiltrate the Kremlin’s archives in order to locate files that identify the real identity of a likely bad guy, code-named Cobalt.

With all of the high tech tools at his disposal, it all seems like success is a foregone conclusion except that someone somewhere puts a fly in the ointment. A double agent? It’s been known to happen. The plan is aborted and the team retreats, just before the Kremlin is blown up with what looks like the entire Russian arsenal of explosives.

With the entire Impossible Missions Force team now disavowed and being blamed for the attack, Hunt and his crew, including Agent Brandt (Jeremy Renner), must figure out who Cobalt is, all of which leads them on a race to disarm a nuclear missile before it is shot at the United States. Would you believe that this is done in order to initiate the next stage in human evolution? How about to further Cruise’s career as an action star?

The M:I series has now devolved so that the plot is punctuated with punches and props. Cruise has made Hunt a caricature of his own self, a kind of Austin Powers but without the tongue in cheek, a James Bond without the suaveness, a Flint without the parodical machismo. The new Ethan Hunt is all-too-serious, and more laughable because of the outlandishness.

For example, the main set piece is the world’s tallest structure, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The building is 830 metres high, and Cruise insisted on doing his own stuntwork on rappel ropes on the outside of the thing, about 100 storeys up (or so we’re led to believe). At one point, Hunt actually runs down the side of the Burj, a scene so ridiculous that it begs the projectionist to rewind and replay it just for added amusement.

Running in every movie is Cruise’s way of proving that he’s intense, vigorous and the world’s greatest method actor. Sadly, he is mistaken. It only proves that he’s a world-class weirdo. That makes Mission: Impossible 4 a wacko brainchild, considering how Cruise also produces these atrocities, all to prove that he is some kind of master of the universe.

Ghost Protocol has none of the punch or enthusiasm or flair of the 1996 original but all of the progressive disappointments from the other two sequels combined. It is interesting for all of about two minutes, with Tom Cruise running away from an exploding landmark, running after a bad guy during a sandstorm chase scene and running down the side of a monstrous testament to conspicuous consumption. If only some movie franchises would just self-destruct …