Super-spy Ethan Hunt has retired from active duty to train new IMF agents. But he is called back into action to confront the toughest villain he's ever faced - Owen Davian, an international weapons and information provider with no remorse and no conscience. Hunt assembles his team: his old friend Luther Strickell, transportation expert Declan, and background operative Zhen. They are to rescue one of his very own trainees, Lindsey who was kidnapped while on a surveillance detail of Davian. It soon becomes evident that Davian is well-protected, well-connected, and downright malicious. This forces Hunt to extend his journey back into the field in order to rescue his wife, Julia, and uncover IMF double agents in the process.
My thoughts : I totally loved it. Ever since Ghost Protocol, I have loved Mission Impossible. My only little thing is that Ethan always has the different crew members. Okay, so 1, 2, 3 Luther is always on the team. But besides him and Ethan, different. Up there ^ in the synopsis, the new team members are Declan (acted by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Zhen (acted by Maggie Q). I loved Declan. Of course, JRM is really, really cute, and his irish accent is totally awesome. There wasn't much "character development" in those characters, but I liked them a lot. Zhen was cool too. A new character is Julia ( acted by Michelle Monaghan) , and she plays Ethan's fiance then wife *sniff*. I wish that she was in all the other ones. That would be an improvement..... Now to the actual film itself. JJ Abrams directed it (Super 8), and it was his first ever major film (blockbuster). I thought he did a fantastic job. The pacing was just right, the action was almost no-stop without being overwhelming, and the CGI/ cinematography was beautiful. My only thing was the camera work. There were wayyyy too many shaky, really fast, too close zoom ups. Ergh, those always get on my nerves because you can't tell what's going on! But the rest of it was neat.
For the skipping : There are several short scenes that are pretty iffy : A scene where Ethan wakes up in bed with Julia (still his fiance). Then as Ethan is being drugged, there's a flashback with Julia undressing. Then some pretty big smooching right after they get married. One part Luther is asking Ethan if him and another agent had "something going on". My sister hit the mute button, so I'm guessing he asks blatantly. The farthest the cussing gets is s**t and and h*ll. God's name is used several times. The violence (haha, it's unskippable, unless you just don't want to watch the movie) was actually a lot stronger than the other ones, because JJ made it a lot more realistic ( cuts, bruises, etc), and the bad guy - Owen Davian - was completely sadistic and a little crazy. *Spoilers in the following paragraph* In the beginning, someone is killed by a bomb implanted in her head, and it is slightly disturbing. In the very, very beginning(first scene) there is a "torture" scene where someone's holding a gun to someone else's head, and telling Ethan to tell him something. (He shoots her in the leg, then the scene ends with him pulling the trigger at her head) Very, very intense.
Watch. This. Movie. !!!!!!!!!
One last picture for good measure ( totally full of MI awesomness, isn't it?)
Signing off,
JAM
