Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch this trailer several times. That’s what it took for me. The first time I watched it, the entire thing was in French. It looked okay. The second time was last night, prior to a screening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. At the point, I couldn’t help but think that it was a mess of a trailer. Exposition up front, a smattering of incoherently laced clips in the middle, some Eminem for ambiance and finally, a big stunt. After a few more inspection runs just now, I’m seeing some pretty wicked stuff inside Brad Bird’s first live-action film. And I’ve heard from a few insiders that Tom Cruise still has it. It’s hard to throw all that together and not be confident that Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is going to be one hell of a ride. But we’ll see about all that. For now, here’s the first trailer.

Watch the Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol trailer below:

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol also stars Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Paula Patton. It hits theaters December 16, 2011. The trailer can be viewed in HD at Yahoo Movies.