Review: Mission Impossible 4 - Ghost Protocol

The third installment in the Mission Impossible franchise was lost under the wave of Crazy Cruise-bashing that surrounded its release, meaning that one of the biggest movie stars of all time grabbed more headlines for being a settee jumping Scientologist rather than starring in one of the best Hollywood action films of the noughties so far.

With the likes of Valkyrie and Knight & Day being solid if unspectacular efforts, Cruise needed Mission Impossible 4 to hit the spot to show he still had the star power to open a movie, Jeremy Renner seemingly drafted into the cast in case everything went tits up again this time around.

Katie and Suri will glad to know that Tom is safe for a while as Mission Impossible 4 is the strongest film in the set so far, with a series of set pieces that make full use of the IMAX format - most action films would be pretty happy with a sequence as good as Cruise and crew breaking into the Kremlin, but they then go and top it minutes later with some thrilling stunts on Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.

As a result, the films finale feels a slight anti-climax as after all Ethan Hunt has been through, struggling to fight a 50 year old in a fancy car park seems a bit of a let down. Pixar's Brad Bird directs the film with flair, but the JJ Abrams influence is still prevalent and feels similar in tone to the job Joss Whedon did with Avengers Assemble - the Marvel film may be set to be the blockbuster box office hit of 2012, but MI:4 is worthy of being held in equal critical esteem.