The first teaser trailer for the much-anticipated Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol has arrived. And it’s everything you could ever want from an action trailer. Explosions – got ’em!, Car chases – got ’em!, Fist fights – got ’em, Boys with guns – got ’em!, Girls with… guns – got ’em! Tom Cruise back on form after the disaster that was Knight and Day – got him! Oh yeah, and the rest of the trailer’s not too shabby either.

You could argue that the trailer gives a little too much of the action away, but it’s all pretty frenetic so you don’t really know how it plays out in the story (a good thing). It is meant to be a teaser trailer though, and now that I’ve seen enough about the film to convince me to go I really don’t want to see anymore – so as a teaser, has it really done its job? Ah, who cares… it’s a damn fine watch.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol marks the live action directorial debut of Brad Bird, Pixar’s golden boy. Having previously directed the animated films The Incredibles and Ratatouille, how will he cope with real live people? Pretty damn well by the looks of it.

The supporting cast looks great too with hot property Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker, The Town), the fantastic Tom Wilkinson (RocknRolla, Michael Clayton), and the return of the ever watchable Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Paul).

You have to give it to the franchise, the Mission: Impossible films really try to be proper action films – not just fluff pieces. They haven’t always got it right, but MI3 was a real step up and I think Ghost Protocol looks like it could be a step up again. I wonder if that might have had something to do with J.J. ‘Midas touch’ Abrams being on board as Director and now Producer?

Enjoy!

This is not just another mission. The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in a global terrorist bombing plot. Ghost Protocol is initiated and Ethan Hunt and his rogue new team must go undercover to clear their organization’s name. No help, no contact, off the grid. You have never seen a mission grittier and more intense than this.

Directed by Brad Bird and produced by J.J. Abrams (Super 8, Star Trek), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol stars Tom Cruise (Every other M:I film), Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Tom Wilkinson, Paula Patton (Mirrors), Josh Holloway (TV’s Lost), Lea Seydoux (Robin Hood), Michael Nyqvist (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire).

New Zealand’s mission begins on 15 December but the US doesn’t get to play spy until the 16th – shhh, don’t tell the CIA.

So what do you think of the trailer? Are you happy to see the return of super-spy Ethan Hunt? Which is your favourite Mission: Impossible film?