Just got back from seeing this…

It’s a mixed bag. It’s good, but it also has some down points (I’ll try my best to keep this spoiler free, and cater for the people who may have already seen this at the same time)

The “Sawyer” thing right at the beginning was more of a nod to Bad Robot enthusiasts than anything else.

Apparently in the Mission Impossible world - Apple products can do anything…

The tag-line to this movie literally says “No backup”. And when “Ghost Protocol” is engaged, the Secretary (of Defense? Who was that clown?) said Tom Cruise’s team would have “nothing… except for the high-tech train filled with gadgets and other stuff conveniently very near-by.” I don’t mean this in a bad way at all, honestly, but that’s kind of a quote/unquote “American” way of thinking: “Oh, we have nothing… not counting all of this stuff over here.” Onk Bak had nothing - just his fists, and the desire to jump though dangerous objects.

The “power gloves” were kinda cool. But the tension in the meeting wasn’t high at all (or at least, as high as it should have been) The sandstorm was one thing, but it felt “thrown in” and “last minute”

Tom Cruise has spent the majority of his vast film career either running away from something (explosions, missiles, aliens, commitment) or running towards something (danger, court, samurai, commitment)

I really wish that they didn’t show Jeremy Renner having “skills” in every single one of the trailers for this movie. It would have been more of a surprise that way. He just came off from The Town - maybe (if they didn’t give away his “skills” in the trailers) he could have even been thought of as the bad guy going into the movie. Or at least a mole in the team. That’s a real threat in a spy movie. It was also AN ACTUAL PLOT POINT FROM THE FIRST MOVIE. It works!

BMW just gave away cars in this movie, and most of them didn’t make it to the end.

Bad guys used to know how much time there was left in the nuclear countdown before they do something as stupid as the bad guy in this movie did…

The last scene just confirms one thing: there’s a fine line between spying on someone and stalking them like a crazy Scientologist.

In all - there were not enough moments to make this a “must see” movie. I was hoping for more from Brad Bird. But for his first live-action movie, I’m glad that he “cut his teeth” on this, possibly got the bugs out, and will literally rock whatever he’s doing next.