Action Adventure

‘Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol’ 4K Ultra HD Review: Brad Bird Makes the Impossible Incredible

July 5, 2018Ben MK



FEATURE: 
As the director of such films as The Incredibles and Ratatouille, Brad Bird may not have been the most obvious choice for directing a Mission: Impossible movie. However, in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Bird proves he's more than up to the task.

For the series' fourth installment, it's not just Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) who finds himself under pressure. The US President has invoked Ghost Protocol, disavowing the entire IMF following a massive explosion at the Kremlin, and with a Russian extremist codenamed Cobalt (the late Michael Nyqvist) out to unleash nuclear Hell upon the world, it falls on Ethan and his fellow agents, Jane Carter (Paula Patton) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), to prevent a global apocalypse. Joining forces with CIA Analyst William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), a man with a few secrets of his own, Ethan and his team embark on the franchise's most high-stakes mission yet, as they attempt to track down Cobalt and stop him from initiating nuclear war.

With slightly more shades of 007 than usual, Ghost Protocol is a solid entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise that delivers all the stunts, high-tech trickery and globe-trotting espionage that viewers have come to admire these films for, while also setting out to establish deeper connections between the characters. In other words, despite the somewhat generic nature of the overarching plot, the result is nothing short of incredible.

AUDIO & VISUALS: 
Ghost Protocol finally brings the Mission: Impossible series into the modern era — in terms of video and audio encoding techniques, that is — and so the difference between the original 2012 Blu-ray and this new 4K release won't be nearly as night-and-day as with the previous movies. Nonetheless, this 2160p transfer is still plenty impressive, delivering a crystal-clear image and bright, vibrant HDR colors as the characters travel from Moscow to Dubai to Mumbai, while the included Dolby TrueHD 7.1 sound mix (which carries over from the previous Blu-ray release) delivers an equally thrilling audio experience, from the chaos of the opening brawl at a Czech prison, to a monstrous sandstorm, to the launch of a nuclear warhead from a Russian submarine.

EXTRAS: 
Paramount's three-disc 4K Ultra HD release includes an iTunes/UltraViolet digital copy and a Blu-ray copy of the film. There are no special features on the 4K disc, but the following extras can be found on the Blu-ray:

  • Mission Accepted (48:04) - Three featurettes ("Suiting Up in Prague," "Heating Up in Dubai" and "Vancouver Fisticuffs") that incorporate director Brad Bird's personal iPhone footage to give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at shooting on-location in Prague, the Czech Republic and Dubai, United Arab Emirates and on a soundstage in Vancouver.
  • Impossible Missions (50:44) - Eleven featurettes ("The Russian Prison," "Shooting in IMAX," "Art Department," "A Roll of Film," "Life Masks," "Stepping into the Storm," "The Sandstorm," "Dubai Car Crash," "Lens on the Burj," "Props" and "Composer") that give a more in-depth look at the creation of some of the movie's more memorable sequences, as well as the cinematography, the production and set design, the post-production process and Michael Giacchino's music score.
  • Deleted Scenes (15:02) - Eight scenes, playable with optional commentary by director Brad Bird ("Alternate Opening: Hendricks Practices His Speech," "Mission on the Train," "Confusion in the Van," "Benji Almost Caught in the Kremlin," "Hendricks and Leonid in the Hangar," "Arrival at the Burj - Original Version," "Ethan and Jane in the Jet" and "Wistrom and Chips").
  • Trailers (4:54) - Two trailers ("Theatrical Trailer 1" and "Theatrical Trailer 2").

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is available from Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment as of June 26th, 2018. The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray features English Dolby TrueHD 7.1, French, Spanish and Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, and English Dolby Digital 5.1 Descriptive Audio tracks. The film is presented with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. The total runtime is 2 hrs. 12 min.






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