A sequel that audiences shouldn’t have any trouble choosing to accept…

The first Mission: Impossible 4 trailer, which was attached to the recently released Transformers: Dark of the Moon, is now officially online.

On the basis of this well-edited trailer, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol looks to be gripping, intense, politically relevant, and fast-paced, just like the brilliant BBC spy drama Spooks, known as MI-5 in the US (which, incidentally, could be an abbreviation for a potential next instalment in the Mission: Impossible franchise).

Joining Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt this time around are Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, and Mission: Impossible III’s Simon Pegg. Speaking of Simon Pegg, it's meta-textually amusing that Scotty, who has a habit of claiming that Kirk’s orders are impossible before finding a way of doing them anyway, should feature in the misnomered (which totally should be a word if it isn't already) Mission: Impossible franchise. And it seems like this time his role’s been greatly expanded his role's been greatly expanded, as it should be. The trailer features a shot of Simon Pegg holding a gun and looking scowly, so maybe he’ll see some action this time around.

Of course, it’s always a question of what’s best for the film overall, but all other things remaining equal, great actors getting more screen time is a very good thing. Similarly, hopefully there’ll be references to his other roles, such as jumping through the air firing two guns, yelling “Yee-haa!” (Hot Fuzz), or going crazy and thinking he’s a pirate (Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs). (The latter possiblity would be somewhat similar to the character in Dodgeball played by Alan Tudyk, who incidentally features in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.)

The Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner is a new addition to the franchise. Having played roles in the Angel episode ‘Somnambulist’, 28 Weeks Later, and S.W.A.T., with Mission: Impossible 4 (which he’s finished filming on), The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, the rally racing car driver biopic Slingshot, and a potential Hawkeye spin-off movie potential Hawkeye spin-off movie coming up, it seems like many of his non-Hurt Locker characters are addicted to danger too. But he’s also a great actor, so it’s cool that this is getting recognised and he’s getting the chance to establish himself in the action genre. In some ways his career's similar to that of Nicolas Cage's, in that he's a great actor who (along with other kinds of films) seems to have an affinity for action roles.

From the quick glance afforded in this trailer, it seems like MI4 will feel real, throwing the characters right into the centre of the action and danger, with believably high stakes, like with J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III, widely (though not exclusively) regarded as the best and most consistent film in the franchise to date.

J.J. Abrams is returning as producer, but not director, as he has plenty of other projects on his plate. For instance, he’s directing Super 8, has Alcatraz and Person of Interest going to series, and is involved with the now possibly delayed Star Trek 2, though he still hasn’t officially committed to directing it (despite being the perfect choice, as shown by his awesome 2009 Star Trek reboot).

However, Tom Cruise has said that he wants each Mission: Impossible film to have a different director and thus a different feel, to keep it fresh, and it seems that finding a suitable replacement director was only as impossible as the missions the characters take on, with acclaimed animation director Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille) making his live-action debut.

Producer J.J. Abrams has said of Brad Bird's work on MI4:

"Not only is the movie coming along, but what I've seen is kind of unbelievable. It's so weird to watch scenes for a movie by a director that feels so of that director's style, and yet you realize you've never even seen a live-action film by that director. You watch moments where you go, 'That's so Brad Bird!' And then you realize, oh, it's so weird to have seen a Brad Bird moment with actual flesh and blood actors...He's a filmmaker who has happened to use animation as a medium, but it's his filmmaking and his characters and his rhythm and his comedy, the action he can do, it's just the humanity that he's done that's come through in movies that have happened to be animated. Seeing that kind of nuance in a movie with people is just, I'm just so thrilled to be a part of it all. I haven't seen the whole thing, but what I have seen is sort of mind-blowing."

While Brad Bird’s transition into live-action will no doubt be smooth, it looks like the colour palette here is more limited than the vibrant colours of his previous films. While this seems like a missed opportunity, it’s arguably suited to the darker, more intense world of the Mission: Impossible films.

Moreover, Brad Bird and J.J. Abrams are both reuniting with the incredible/brilliant composer Michael Giacchino, who worked with the former on The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and with the latter on Alias, Lost, Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek, and Super 8, as well as scoring Pixar's Up and the Wachowskis' Speed Racer. He's fantastic at both emotion and matching the music to the action onscreen. So I think we can count on him to come up with music for the film that's much better than the song featured in the trailer.

There's a brief, amusing exchange between Simon Pegg's Benji Dunn and Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt, as the latter prepares for the (literally) death-defying stunt of climbing the tallest building in the world, with high-tech gear presumably designed by Benji.

“Okay, now remember, blue is glue.”

“And what is red?”

“Dead.”

Hopefully they’ll expand on that in the film, adding other colours. Like ‘orange’. And then Benji will have to try and think of something that rhymes with ‘orange’, before giving up and telling Ethan to shut up. (Or maybe ‘orange’ just rhymes with ‘orange’, and oranges don’t stick to skyscrapers, so…)

It's interesting to note that three big new trailers hit the net on the same day: Steven Spielberg's no doubt well-crafted but somewhat maudlin-looking War Horse, the cool, steampunky action of Paul W.S. Anderson's The Three Musketeers, and this.

Like with the awesome Fast Five (which incidentally referenced Mission: Impossible in dialogue), Mission: Impossible 4 still feels fresh, even this late in the franchise. Who says sequels can't rock?

The screenplay written by Josh Applebaum & Andre Nemec (Alias, Life on Mars US, Happy Town), based on a story by producer J.J. Abrams and star/producer Tom Cruise. The film also stars Josh Holloway (Lost), Lea Seydoux (Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood), Michael Nyqvist (the original The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Vladimir Mashkov (Behind Enemy Lines), Tom Wilkinson (Batman Begins), Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire), and Darren Shahlavi (Mortal Kombat: Legacy).

Despite a misjudged song which threatens to ruin the tone, this is a great trailer.  Impossible to live up to? Well, that’s the filmmakers’ mission, and they’ve chosen to accept it. Fortunately it won’t self-destruct in thirty seconds, so fans can rewatch it as many times as they like until the film comes out.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is released on 16 December 2011 in the US, and on 26 December 2011 in the UK.

The Film Stage

See also:

Jeremy Renner may take Mission Impossible lead from Tom Cruise

Mission: Impossible III – The Summer Blockbuster Hollywood Got Right

Bourne to take on new identity

Transformers 3 Super Bowl spot online

Stupefy! Harry Potter final trailer released

New Captain America trailer released

Super 8 full-length trailer debuts

Shrek director Andrew Adamson to direct Beasts of Burden

The 10 best-to-worst movie vigilante teams

3 + 1 = Poor: Four trilogies that took it too far

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