[Movie Review Quickie] Mission Impossible 4 and The Dark Knight Rises Prologue

Enjoyed Mission Impossible 4 and The Dark Knight Rises Prologue.
Someone on the interwebs recommended Brad Bird for James Bond and after seeing how he pulled off the action and the locales, I have to agree. After the Incredibles it was either Bond or Mission Impossible.
MI:4 is not M:II. There aren’t stunts for stunts sake and after seeing it in IMAX, I’m waiting to see someone push the envelope and film the entire movie in IMAX.
One must wonder if Cruise’s life did not implode/explode several years culminating on Oprah’s couch if MI:4 would have beaten out Sherlock Holmes, instead, MI:4 got beat by CGI Squirrels, CGI Squirrels I might add that have more screen per movie theater. My normal stomping grounds of Lincoln Mall had no MI:4 but a crap load of squirrels.
Everyone performed fine in MI:4, Paula Patton probably the stand out since she got the meatier of the roles while Simon Pegg from MI:III is now a full fledge agent and new comer Jeremy Renner pulled off his analyst role well. If Cruise does step away from the role, I think Renner could pull it off when he’s not Avenging some costumed villain. I enjoyed the nods to previous MI movies, it’s nice to see they’re not completely forgetting what happened last time.
The only downside of the movie was the villain. I think previous MI movies (including M:II) had better villains or at least they were given more screen time instead of just getting beat up by Cruise in a car park.
As for The Dark Knight Rises Prologue: I enjoyed it. Bane’s voice has been making the rounds on the interwebs as of late with the big question: Will Nolan alter it if no one can understand it. I have to say I managed to understand 3/4ths of what Bane said in the prologue. The voice is great idea to an extent but there are lines in there that are lost.
Overall, MI:4 is worth seeing IMAX, as far as I could tell every single set piece scene was filmed in IMAX.