I saw Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol last week. I'm really not a film critic, but here's my sort-of review of it. No spoilers.



Tom Cruise still looks good, and it seems like he is starting to relax and not take himself so seriously all the time. Can't say much about his acting abilities, his character doesn't do anything that would require serious acting.

M:I - GP is your usual modern day spy/undercover operative -fare. We have the cool and competent main character - Ethan Hunt. The backup team - Simon Pegg being really funny as the team geek and operative-on-training, Paula Patton as the token female team member and Hawkeye as the 'new member' - an analyst they pick up en route to the mission, once again being abandoned by their superiors. [1]

And then there is a threat to the entire world, chase sequences, awesome tech, failing tech, snark, bad-assery, fight scenes, etc, the usual. But we also have a sandstorm, the most ridiculous hotel in the world, an actual Bollywood star, and Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner playing of each other pretty well.

Simon Pegg's character was the best part of the film. He was excited, nervous, exhilarated, scared and confident in turns and through all of it funny and relatable.

It appears that TPTB are trying to shape Ethan Hunt into 21st century James Bond. I don't think it's going to work. There's nothing distinctive enough about the Mission Impossible -franchise or Ethan Hunt's character. And they are too late anyway, since Daniel Graig took over as Bond.
He brought Bond to the 21st century, made him the charming mix of a old-fashioned gentleman spy and today's metro-sexual. That coupled with all the history the character has, I don't see anyone taking his place.

[1] It kind of irks me, how common the theme is nowadays, the protagonist[s] being on their own, no back-up, very little resources, possibly even on the run from their own people. It's lazy writing. Easy way to put obstacles on the protagonists' way.