Mission Impossible: Zero Protocol Review: Enough is Enough

Bombs, explosions, tall buildings, iPhones, iPads and Tom Cruise miraculously surviving his stunts basically sum up the latest installment of the Mission Impossible series, “Ghost Protocol.”

Brad Bird famously known for directing Pixar’s “Ratatouille” makes his live action directorial debut and although the movie was filled with high-octane action scenes, the lack of realism and botched dialogue took away the luster this movie could have had.

Tom Cruise is back as agent Ethan Hunt and faces all sorts of new challenges. When a bomb destroys the Kremlin building, the IMF is blamed and its members labeled as terrorists, intent on inciting a global nuclear war. Hunt and his team must now uncover the conspiracy.

Like the previous Mission Impossible films, this one is no different. You have your team of agents using fancy up to date technology to break through surveillance cameras. But unlike the older additions in the series, this film seemed to induce lame comedy, especially with Cruise, Simon Pegg [“Shaun of The Dead”] and Jeremy Renner [“The Hurt Locker”], the new members of the IMF team.

This film tried very hard to mix in a good laugh and over the top action. One scene included Hunt climbing the world’s tallest building in Dubai with a pair of magnet gloves. Obviously, there were some struggles along the way as one of the gloves malfunctions, forcing Hunt to break through a glass window without breaking his neck or receiving a scratch for his efforts. Other scenes involved Cruise jumping of buildings barefoot without breaking not only a sweat, but his legs or ankles.

The comedy this film tried provide was with dialogue, but it was the farfetched near-death, action-packed scenes that will induce laughter. The question of how Hunt made it out alive is a large one throughout the film. There’s even an explosion where Hunt is running for his life and realistically would wipe out an entire city, but somehow, it doesn’t kill him.

The premise of this film was as lame as a first person shooter in a video game and the climax obviously sets up unfortunately another Mission Impossible film, which should be Called Mission Impossible “Ethan Somehow Survives,” or something along those lines. It seems that the Hollywood industry is obviously running out of creative ideas, only setting up useless sequels that excite the audience in the previews, but when actually watched in the theater, they  end up being a complete waste of time and the DVD they were copied on.

“Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol” is not only a poor film, it’s the weakest addition of the franchise thus far; several parts of the movie are near snore-inducing. Even Jeremy Renner did not make a difference even though he is a talented actor. The overall feel for this film and this franchise is that it is one too many. When the story and the action gets farfetched and unoriginal, the line should be drawn and Hollywood should know when enough is enough.