Movie Breakdown: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Noah)
The Impression:
You can call me a fan of the Mission Impossible franchise. Sure, like everyone else who has eyes and was forced to be subjected to John Woo’s second Mission Impossible film, I understand that there can be some flaws in the format, but overall these are entertaining films with a charismatic star and everything I’ve seen from film number 5 assures me that it’s going to be another enjoyable romp down Tom Cruise lane.
The Reality:
Let’s lay the Tom Cruise hate to rest before we get going. Sure, Tom Cruise is annoying, and he has been bad in one or two movies over his big, brilliant career and yes he’s a Scientologist who possibly forced Katie Holmes to be his wife and probably has a crystal planet floating somewhere in the universe. Does this affect the way we see him as an actor? It shouldn’t, so let’s just assume, while reading this review, that all of you love Tom Cruise and if you like or don’t like this film it isn’t predicated on the fact that he’s the star of it. Pretty much: Tom Cruise is a beast, and you need to get over it. That said, Mission; Impossible – Rogue Nation is, outside of the untouchable Mad Max: Fury Road, the best blockbuster of the summer. It’s a light, fun, spy-romp that has a cast of characters we’ve come to know and love (Simon Pegg, I am especially fond of you) slipping back into a slightly altered format and doing what the IMF does best – spy shit. This go around the government, again, has decided that the IMF is bad news and that it isn’t exactly up to code having them running around the world, blowing up shit. Just about the same time this is happening, Tom Cruise discovers that an “anti-IMF” called The Syndicate exists and well, it’s up to him to shut it down. Amazing character-driven, spy-action commences for the next two hours. Seriously, this is how a blockbuster should be done. It’s fun, but not entirely adrift on action scenes and good looking girls (though it has both in spades), instead director Christopher McQuarrie and his team inject a layer of subtext in regards to why we as world powers continue to indulge in spycraft. As always, Rogue Nation features a sort of anti-Bond girl, meaning a strong-willed, ass-kicking opponent for Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt (this time it’s the very convincingly bad-ass Rebecca Ferguson playing a bad-spy-who-might-be-good-or-might-just-be-playing-good-to-do-bad-things) and it features Simon Pegg saying cheeky things, but more so it features the evolution of the relationships of these characters. We’ve spent almost 20 years with the folks from IMF (both Cruise and Pegg are showing signs) and instead of just bouncing them around like money-making pinballs, McQuarrie and team reminds us why not only we love to watch them spy, but that after mission after mission, these characters genuinely care about each other. It’s a little cherry on the top of a great entry into an already pretty fantastic franchise.
The Lesson:
Don’t hate. Seriously, I can smell your hating. Scrub off the odor and go see these film.
