Review of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) by Misadventurer — 01 Jan 2016

Mission Impossible : Rogue Nation reviewed.

By jd ep.

It's been almost 20 years since Tom Cruise took on the mantle of Ethan Hunt, seemingly the only member of the Impossible Missions Force, and "Rogue Nation" is his 5th cinematic outing.Mission Impossible : Rogue Nation reviewed.

By jd ep.

It's been almost 20 years since Tom Cruise took on the mantle of Ethan Hunt, seemingly the only member of the Impossible Missions Force, and "Rogue Nation" is his 5th cinematic outing. This time around, his organization is under fire by CIA boss, Alec Baldwin, and a Senate Sub-committee voting to disband the IMF, stating most of their successes are based off of Luck than actual tactics. Hunt and his team have faced overwhelming odds in past film; from their own leader going rogue, to stopping a super virus, to a really mad Philip Seymour Hoffman, to stopping a nuke mid-air after accidentally blowing up the Kremlin. Now with no more IMF or governmental support, Ethan Hunt is searching for the secret organization that possibly has ties to everything thats happened in the past, known only as "The Syndicate" which also has infiltrated the IMF at its heart, and Ethan can only trust his team; Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner. The rest of the films usually introduces a larger cast of team members who inadvertently die on missions or from treachery, but this time its just returners. But this film isn't just about the boys, the female lead.. and really, only woman in the movie, Ilsa Faust played by Rebecca Ferguson (who I thought was Michelle Monaghan at first) does her fair share of asskicking, double / triple crossing... its really kind of hard to tell whose team she's on. There's almost a love story between Hunt and Faust, but Ethan is still married or has a fiancé but she's never addressed, he just let her go at the end of Ghost Protocol.

Mission Impossible: Rouge Nation is the most fun Mission Impossible ever. It offers epic action sequences, gorgeous locations and big laughs. There's no real character growth or anything, just procedural action sequences, Rogue Nation knows exactly what it is, it's more, more adventure, more humor, more excitement. You know who everyone is, and you know you'll probably never see the female lead again as seems to be the case with M:I female leads, which is sad, because Ferguson carries most of the film. Her character, Faust is the central source of pathos, as her life hangs in the balance, being played with by her government and the baddies and the only person she can trust is Ethan Hunt. Jeremy Renner reprises his role as Brandt, taking the backseat in most of the excitement, Ving Rhames's Luther gets more field time and shows why he's best the guy offsite, while Simon Pegg's Benji is more confident in his role as a hacker turned field agent. Though the centerpointe for all the action is Tom Cruise, whether he's flushing himself down a giant toilet, escaping an opera house, in a motorcycle chase through Morocco or hanging off the side of a cargo plane, there's little Ethan Hunt can't accomplish.

While Rogue Nation has a stand-alone feel, its also a direct sequel to Ghost Protocol. Never before in a Mission Impossible movie have they ever addressed what happened in any movie before, this one recaps what new audience members may have missed in films past, while also never mentioning what happened with any other members of the IMF. But I can live with that, if I want to see gorgeous set pieces, insane action sequences, Tom Cruise risking his life and Simon Pegg making fun of everything, I'll gladly come back to the theatre for more Mission Impossible films if they just focus on. Where the film felt a bit lacking to me, was in the gadget department. Mission Impossible movies are known for their amazing tech. In Ghost Protocol, the BMW i8 that Ethan drives to the Indian Billionaire's party in, I thought we would never see, it looked too futuristic; In Los Angeles the i8 is everywhere now. While all the heroes drive Bimmers (and one Range Rover) the only cool car thing is a biometric reader on the drivers side window to lock and unlock the car. That seemed cool, and a way to get smudgy windows. The only other cool toy was an automatic lockpick credit card, there were a few unorthodox firearms in the film as well, but no exploding gum, no laser watches or dynamite pens (granted a few of those are Bond staples, but still).