MI4: Ghost Protocol - Simply A Hi-Tech Show!

(2011) ★★★☆☆

I gotta say that what attracts my eyeballs is not Tom Cruise or his stunts at all. Come on. Face it. He’s getting older, plus weirder and less popular due to his religious belief in whatever cult that is. Like it or not, hi-tech gadgets steal the show. Without them, the crew could simply accomplish nothing but sit and wait to be terminated. MI 4 is a hi-tech showoff. It’s quite entertaining to see how they use them to facilitate their jobs, but it’s not pleasing to see the long hair Ethan Hunt. I know I’m being unreasonable here, but don’t you think he should cut his hair? He looks more like a desperado than a secret agent!

To me, MI (1996) is a classic, but MI 4 is just a fair piece of entertainment. I can hardly consider it good. Truth is, a good story doesn’t necessarily need any actions, but a good action film must have a great story to stand out. MI 4’s story is pretty exaggerated and cliched. No matter how serious it gets, the good always beat the bad you know. Some of the actions are preposterous and unconvincing. Image one badly crashes his car and yet he’s able to run and get away, barely injured. How could that be possible? Also, ask yourself, if you want to destroy the world so bad, would you still carry with you the key that could save it? I don’t think so! What makes MI a classic is that it’s more about brains than brawn, but MI 4 is quite the opposite.

Everybody’s talking about that skyscraper scene. They doubt if it’s really Tom Cruise himself hanging out there playing spidey (see the picture above). I have no question about it. It’s him for sure, but of course there must be wires and rescue air cushions and a bit of CGI or stuff to make sure he’s safe. The idea itself is tricky and daring enough but the outcome is not so spellbinding like I thought. Neither is the whole film!

I don’t think I’ll go check out MI 5 if it stars Tom Cruise again. But if Jeremy Renner is willing to take on, I’ll reconsider it. This guy is cool and has a lot of futures ahead of him. I look forward to seeing more of him on the big screen!