Mission Impossible Rogue Nation
Ethan Hunt discovers a secret organisation called The Syndicate, that plans on terrorism attacks. With IMF now disavowed by the new CIA Director, Hunt must work independently to discover who is controlling The Syndicate and how to stop them.
Direction
Christopher McQuarrie joins the franchise in his first outing as director, and continues the more toned down, and realistic approach to the overall look and feel of the film.
He and Cruise make a great team, having worked together as far back as 2008. He clearly has a passion for crazy stunts, just as Cruise. This film is no exception with the opening sequence with Cruise on the side of the plane as it takes off.
The later stunt with Cruise holding his breath for 7 minutes feels a little overdone with CGI, and the constant cuts between action to show other characters does leave one feeling a little short changed.
Cast/Characters
Tom Cruise brings his A Game as always is the front and center of the show, and in almost every scene of the film. I’ve said in previous reviews that I’m a fan of his,
Jeremy Renner appears in his second and final appearance as Brandt. He feels sidelined throughout this film. Not even joining Hunt face to face until almost the 90m mark, and even then he is left out of any action sequences.
Simon Pegg returns for his third outing as Benji Dunn. The clear friendship and chemistry between Pegg and Cruise is evident as Dunn gets significantly more to do in this film. Now a fully fledged agent too.
Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris and Alec Baldwin all join the franchise here, with their characters Ilsa Faust; an undercover MI6 agent, who is hunting the rogue MI6 agent Solomon Lane (Harris). Baldwin plays the CIA director who is trying to bring IMF down.
Ving Rhames returns again as Luther, the only other cast member aside from Cruise to appear in every film.
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
Starting with the standard opening credits that give ‘just enough’ of the movie – as well as the epic plane ride sequence – this keeps the adrenaline rush going right up to the last minutes. A usual in this film series.
As usual, the film goes world wide, having scenes in Austria, Morocco, Belarus and France.
There are phenomenal choreography in such scenes as the Opera sequence,, dive sequence (although a little overused in CGI) and the train station confrontation.
With so many ups there are a couple of ‘downs’ too. One is the constant ‘plot amour’ that Hunt is able to survive that would kill normal people. These include dodging bullets, flying off of motorcycles. In fairness he does literally die at one point. His 6 month beard at the beginning of the film is laughable too.
Overall
Another stellar entry to the series. I think this was on par with number four, with a few ups from that film (better villain, better side characters), and a couple of slight downs.
Still, if you are a fan of action films, or Cruise in general, watch this. You wont be disappointed.
4/5
If you’re able to, please “buy me a coffee”