The search for sensation goes on, whether at home or abroad, and minuscule screens on smart phones will be a somewhat underwhelming grandstand (when we arrive at that point) for this consummate orgy of outrageous spectacle.
Tom Cruise is attached, frog-like, to the windows of Dubai's Burj Khalifa, so many storeys up that it makes no difference to the likely spatter pattern. Around him, a camera rotates and suddenly we are stuck there too, willing the gizmo glove that keeps him attached to be wi-fi not 3G.
And a snug fit too, for our palms are sweating. This is the biggest screen in Britain (the BFI Imax) and the span between top and bottom of the white sheet is enough to induce vertigo without the further aggravation of a high wind, a time limit and the prospect of world destruction.
Brad Bird, the director, has history in this area although none that you would not expect were his name unfamiliar. The fluid, unending camera swirls, the world as one large WD40 theme park and the gadgets that are part ludicrous but always perfect for the job.
Bird directed The Incredibles. He is one of the chief architects of the Pixar canon and a wise choice to revive the fortunes of this downgraded franchise. And someone's let on to Cruise too about Mission's mixed fortunes so he's buffed up for a box office showdown.
So no baggage from the old days here. Gone are the old crew (there's a cameo by Ving Rhames but he looks sufficiently sofa-thick to make benching a good idea) and we're in with the new.
Simon Pegg puts the brakes on the comedy but still gets to deliver the puckish one-liners rather than the chin-rucking hooks (no action hero he).
Paula Patton is conveniently beautiful enough to seduce tycoon Brij Nath (Anil Kapoor) but also handy in heels for a catfight. And Jeremy Renner is a man of secrets and self-proclaimed (if barely discernible) reticence.
We travel with Ethan Hunt from Russia, to Dubai, to Mumbai (if the dollars desert, then track down the rupee and the rouble) on the trail of some old school baddie who wants to marry nuclear weapons with codes and a delivery system for some warped social experiment.
It matters not about the wonky logistics or bonkers background. The plot is sufficiently occupying to present the requisite number of setpiece impossibilities all safely sidestepped, dismantled or rhino'd by our fantastic four.
Bird has stolen from the tables of Bourne (for the handy action) and Bond (for the sumptuous sets) and, all in all, this rough and tumble is slick, sexy and thoroughly merciless.
A rush from top to bottom.
– From December 2011
