If you'd like a more visual experience you can check out my youtube review HERE!!!
Like the Fast and the Furious franchise, it took a while for the Mission Impossible franchise to find its footing. Of course unlike Fast and Furious Mission Impossible only has on bad entry (we can all pretty much agree about MI2) but with Ghost Protocol it found the key to its success which was its ensemble. The first three Mission Impossible films focused on Ethan Hunt but what Brad Bird brought with Ghost Protocol was a great team dynamic which gave everyone their moment to shine and Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie not only continues the ensemble aspect but makes it even stronger.
Rogue Nation takes place after the events of Ghost Protocol (though you don't need to see that film before going into this one but you should anyway because it's great!) and the IMF is shut down after being declared obsolete by by the CIA. Ethan Hunt goes rogue in order to expose a terrorist organisation known as the Syndicate made up of agents from across the world who were thought to be dead (pretty much an anti-IMF). With the help of a former MI6 agent who is a part of the Syndicate and a few familiar faces, Hunt must evade the CIA and stop the Syndicate before they do drastic damage.
With Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie makes a taut suspense filled film that escalates the tension to it's highest point. It's filled with fantastically choreographed and edited action sequences, gorgeous captured on 35mm film with Robert Elswit returning as the cinematographer having previously shot Ghost Protocol. Joe Kraemer also adds a rocking soundtrack that captures the tone and suspense of the film wonderfully. Christopher McQuarrie's script is tight, smart, never superfluous and everything is presented in a way that adds to either the story or the characters. The action scenes move the plot forward, the humour is part of the situation not winking at the camera, the relationships between the characters feel honest and real not forced. It just feels fresh in the current landscape of blockbusters even though we've kind of seen it before.
Tom Cruise is back with several familiar faces from the franchise including Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames along with newcomers Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Alec Baldwin and Simon McBurney. The cast has absolutely great chemistry and the fact that it's not just the Tom Cruise show is absolutely great. Both Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames bring weight to their friendship with Cruise's Ethan Hunt, there's an earnestness to how much they care and have each other's back. Alec Baldwin is also a great addition even though he's pretty much playing Jack Donaghy but when has that ever been a bad thing?
Tom Cruise gets a lot of hate because of how people view him as a person (even though they don't even know him personally) but he's a fantastic actor and incredibly committed to his work. Tom Cruise manages to bring so much credibility with his performance and a lot people don't really know how hard that is to do. I'm not just talking emotionally either, Cruise's commitment to doing his own stunts add so much to the suspense and the tension of the film Whether he's holding onto a plane, scraping his knee on the road as he speeds on a motorcycle or literally learning to hold his breath for six minutes so he can film an underwater scene in one take. There's a reason why Tom Cruise is one of the biggest action stars working today and that's because he works incredibly hard.
But, the real stand out of the film is Rebecca Ferguson. I first saw her in Brett Ratner's Hercules (harmless but forgettable) with Dwayne Johnson and she was easily one of the stand out parts of that film and the same can be said here. She manages to be fierce, sexy, strong and vulnerable all at the same time and is just another great addition to the many fantastic female character's we've been getting in blockbusters lately (except Jurassic World...that movie was pretty sexist). She's presented entirely as an equal to Tom Cruise and the only reason she needs his help is because she's working on her own. Her action scenes are fantastic and so is her emotional performance and I can't wait to see her career take off.
Now, every movie has their share of problems and Rogue Nation's is one that has plagued all of their films and also most of Marvel's films and that is their villains. With the exception of Mission Impossible 3 none of the mission impossible films have had memorable or really threatening villains. Sean Harris does a solid job with his character and he definitely has more to do than the Ghost Protocol villain but it still isn't as meaty as it could have been and the situations end up being more of an antagonist than the villain.
But at the end of the day the film is still an absolute blast. Other than the lacklustre villain everything is as good as it can really be for this type of action movie. Well shot, scored, acted and full of great suspense, action and a good amount of humour, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation proves that the franchise still has a lot of life left in it and I look forward to seeing the next one.
4 out of 5 stars.
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