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Movie Review: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol
January 31, 2023
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Spy Movie Sunday continued this week when I watched Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which I was disappointed to realize I don’t own in 4k. I’m not certain it’s the case here, but usually 4k discs keep the IMAX aspect ratio, whereas the DVDs and Blu-Rays do not. But if you have no clue what I’m talking about, carry on.

It’s still a great movie.

I saw M:I 4 on IMAX early in its release. A good friend of mine was moving back home and this was the last time we got to hang out before he left. The theater was packed that night and thank goodness neither of us wanted popcorn. There was no elbow room. None of that really mattered, though, as we were swept up by the first really great movie in the franchise. The first one is solid, and the second has it's moments. M:I 3 is fun while you’re watching it and quickly forgotten. 

Ghost Protocol sticks to you like Tom Cruise on the Burj Khalifa. 

Rather than try to summarize the serpentine plot (which actually makes sense), I’ll just dive right into my thoughts. The first thing that always stands out to me how every opportunity is taken to make things more difficult, yet never (ahem) impossible. Ethan Hunt needs to use a retinal scanner, but it’s on the side of a moving train, and there are posts spaced just right that he has to keep letting go. Ethan Hunt needs to climb the outside of Burj Khalifa, but his gloves malfunction. 

Raise the stakes, always.

The second thing that jumps out is how exposition facilitates character development. Off the top of my head, I can think of three ways to convey important information to the audience other than voiceover: during an action scene (The Terminator), stopping the action cold just to talk (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), or spooling it out in ways that also communicate something else. When M:I 4 opens we’re left wondering what happened to Hunt’s wife from the last movie and what Brandt’s big secret is. The answers aren’t essential to the plot, simply serving to fill out the story. Melding the two questions not only does that, but also adds dimension to the characters.

Exposition win.

Finally (and this will come as no surprise), I love how M:I 4 checks my three favorite boxes: beautiful people, in exotic locations, doing exciting things. And it’s never not a joy to watch. To my mind, Ghost Protocol is the most fun movie in the series so far, though Rogue Nation is arguably the better film. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

Before I wrap this up, a couple of bonus observations:

Ghost Protocol is the rare sequel that improves on its predecessor. Giving Hunt a wife in the last movie could have tangled up the series. By finding a creative way out of that mess we can appreciate a narrative escape just as much as we enjoy watching Hunt in his Russian hospital escape. It’s also refreshing to see a franchise movie that doesn’t get caught up in selling us the next movie. Yes, it does that too. But never at the cost of the main event. They do it in a subtler way than Marvel movies or the old “James Bond Will Return In….” 

Ghost Protocol is the Mission: Impossible movie I’ve seen the most times, and that will likely remain the case. 

 

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Content warning: language and sexual situations.

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Star Wars is dead and the more apathy you show the faster it will be allowed to rest in peace.

Instead of griping about what Disney has done, why don't you listen to my space adventure story? He Who Rides on the Clouds is supernatural noir that spans space and time. When children on Mars go missing, Alexis Leonard and his ex-wife Brittany go looking. Their search leads them to a pagan temple and an ancient religion.

If you'd like to buy the story and read ahead, it's available in the Fall 2020 issue of Cirsova, available here: https://amzn.to/3yRRywY

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Yesterday two trailers were released for upcoming superhero projects. First, we had Marvel's Ironheart, which Disney has been sitting on for years at this point. Apparently it follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), a young black woman at MIT who is (was?) intended to take over for Tony Stark as Ironwhathaveyou. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, take a look.

I stopped paying too much attention to the MCU a long time ago, but apparently Riri was introduced in Wakanda Forever, and her fans have been clamoring for a standalone show ever since (/sarcasm). Watching the trailer, I can't help but notice how many times we're told she's smart and capable. Any suggestion that she can't do something is shot down immediately. We're supposed to believe that The System is against is her because she's poor, I guess, and doesn't have Tony Stark's advantages.

Remember Tony Stark? Sure, he was rich. But he was also a self-absorbed man-child who found himself in a cave in Afghanistan who had to engineer his own escape with scrap parts. Tony Stark, who had to learn about self-sacrifice and the consequences of his actions. Robert Downey Jr. make us like the guy, with his easy charm, even though we wanted to see him grow up. There was room for a character arc. No offence to Dominique, but she doesn't have the charm, and her character clearly has nowhere to go.

A few hours later, Warner Bros./DC released the trailer for James Gunn's Superman, the latest reboot of the iconic superhero. We've been waiting for a good Superman for a long time. Something to reunite the fans, the casually interested, and possibly the entire country. And to be honest, I don't think this is gonna do it. Take a look.

Before I go any further, I want to spin my theory on the interview scene, which is a little different from what I'm hearing from most anyone else. Notice how David Corenswet pitches his voice really high when he says, "Sure!" At this point in the movie, I don't think Lois (Rachel Brasnahan) knows that Clark is Superman, and thinks he's just playacting. But when Clark drops his voice, he's showing his cards a little bit. Then, when he completely loses his cool, he's just acting how Lois thinks Superman would respond. In context (the scene is reportedly ten minutes long!), it might be interesting. Out of context, in a trailer, it's a stupid decision.

Throughout the entire trailer we see Superman smacked around, knocked out, screaming out in self-defense, and made fun of for having a dog. There are some super-heroics, to be sure, but they're mitigated by the overwhelming amount of thrashing he takes. Unlike Riri, I guess he's got some room for growth. But it doesn't inspire me to see the movie. Some are defending this approach, suggesting that someone with such a clear cut understanding of right and wrong would be frustrated and confused by our complex, political climate. And I agree. But his moral compass and grace towards an unfair world should have been set before leaving Smallville and going out into the world.

So on the one hand, we've got a flawless female character. And on the other, we've got an immature Superman. Neither character is attractive, warts and all. Neither character is relatable or inspiring in the ways the filmmakers intended, as presented. Maybe the show and movie will be good. But someone else will have to let me know. Because right now, I'm not inspired to see either one.

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What Do We Want? Familiar Originality! When Do We Want It? Now!

There is an ongoing debate over what movie audiences really want. On the one hand, there are those who bemoan the upcoming slate of films that are nothing but sequels and prequels. “People want original movies!” they say, and use the spectacular failure of recent comic book movies as proof. But when an original movie like the recent Black Bag doesn’t make a dent at the box office and is quietly shuffled onto streaming, the other side can say, “No they don’t.”

So which is it?

I say, both!

The average viewer likes familiarity. That’s why every night on TV millions of people watch the latest episode of their favorite procedural. Every episode is the same. Has been for years. Doesn’t matter if you’re watching Bones, House M.D., or NCIS, at the end of the day, the story beats are invariably the same. The characters fill the same archetypes. 

Even if you aren’t a student of scriptwriting, you know the flow.

Engaging with a story is sometimes like singing a song. Sometimes you want to sit back and listen to a master perform, but other times you want to join in. And if the tune is simple and familiar, you can learn new words that much more easily. If the melody is complex, with tempo and key changes, it demands attention. That’s when you just sit back and appreciate someone else’s artistry. 

More often than not, we’re drawn to the familiar. 

We go to the movies to be entertained more than we go to be challenged.

But Hollywood seems determined to challenge us. They challenge our ideas of who are familiar are. They challenge our core beliefs about right and wrong. When they do make something that isn’t from a well established intellectual property, they challenge us to accept an unfamiliar actor, who likely isn’t attractive or charming. Why should we want to get to know this person and the character he or she is playing?

We don’t. 

Mass appeal isn’t difficult. Our mainstream entertainment providers are making it difficult, probably in large part because they don’t know or understand what we want. And unless they do, people just like us will move to replace them. 

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Book Review - The Revenant and the Cult - Book Two: The Terror in the Wychwood

In the forward to The Revenant and the Cult - Book Two: The Terror in the Wychwood, author Herman P. Hunter mentions that his influences are J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, C.S. Lewis, and H.P. Lovecraft. While it may seem odd to intersperse deeply religious writers with those antagonistic to the idea of a benevolent God, from a writer’s perspective it makes sense.

For a fantasy writer, particularly one of faith, they are essential.

It’s also worth remembering that all four men were producing their greatest works around the same time on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Theirs was the golden age of worldbuilding, and it’s practically impossible for today’s writer of the fantastic not be influenced by their work, consciously or through osmosis. But to fully appreciate modern genre fiction, it’s to our advantage to drink deeply from their bibliographies.

Because genre fiction doesn’t always mean science fiction and fantasy.

As I noted in my review of The Revenant and the Cult - Book One: The Missing Spy, that story draws heavily from western tropes. Howard, always one to blaze his own trails, also dabbled in Lovecraft’s mythos, but before taking his own life seemed to be moving into writing cowboy stories. He was a Texan, after all. Unlike many authors, he was never satisfied staying in category for too long. 

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Two words: Moonlight Hunters.

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Christian and otherwise, alike.

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