I'm just gonna throw this out now; I have never seen any of the other Mission: Impossible films and thus will not be comparing the latest entry to the others. I will be reviewing this on it's own merits as a blockbuster. A bloody good blockbuster at that, this film is all about big set pieces and stupidly fun action. No mysteries to be solved (apart from the mystery of why Hollywood still persist with Tom Cruise still being a reason to see a film) and no confusing plot twists. It focuses in on it's villain of the story very early and sticks too him. The plot's also very much standard action film with threats of nuclear war, a crazy Russian and an American hero. You know I sure am glad America have such a healthy supply of heroes, or our world may already of been destroyed by Russia's apparent surplus population of madmen obsessed with the idea of nuclear war.
This being Brad Bird's first time directing a live action film, I was admittedly impressed. Obviously this never even comes close to his finest moments at Pixar or The Iron Giant, but c'mon, how many films in general can be compared to Pixar's finest and come out of it not looking a bit rubbish? The supporting cast also all managed their roles pretty well, with Simon Pegg in particular more than filling his role as the comic relief. I didn't come into this film expecting any laughs, to be honest I never even checked out any trailers, but thanks to some pretty good lines and Pegg's delivery there were quite a few times where the whole audience were laughing.
Mission: Impossible is far from perfect, it's full of flaws and I still don't like Tom Cruise but it's one of the finer blockbusters out there and one of the very few that still understands the true concept of what makes a good blockbuster. Don't try and be smart and don't try to make your characters deep or confusing, just have some damn fine set pieces and some edge of the seat action scenes. If you're looking for just over two hours of stupid fun, this film will do the job perfectly.
7/10
