You might be mistaken for thinking the Mission: Impossible series to be nothing more than Tom Cruise’s daily exercise excuse and to a certain point, that may be true. But this Americanized version of James Bond, with the requisite femme fatales, gimmicky gadgets, and exotic locations, still offers an exciting ride through the world of espionage and double-crossing.
Taking the reins from the rotating door of directors before, Christopher McQuarrie opens Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation with a gigantic Tom Cruise stunt and yet somehow manages to keep the pace up throughout. As Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his merry IMF forces search for a secret syndicate of rogue forces set on upending the world order, McQuarrie turns what could be a boondoggle of chaos into a quite streamlined action film where all the parts fit together nicely and nothing seems at all forced.
Keeping with tradition, the IMF is on the outs with the government and semi-evil Alec Baldwin wants to fold them into the CIA where they will have oversight and accountability. Of course, this leads to Ethan Hunt being disavowed just as he stumbles across The Syndicate led by Soloman Lane (Sean Harris) and his dastardly plans of worldwide eruption which has operated under the radar so that no one knows of. However, that leads to the fun of recruiting returning players Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, and Ving Rhames to join in with newcomer Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) to take down Lane.
Breaking the Mission: Impossible tradition of different directors, McQuarrie has confirmed to come back to helm the sixth installment of the franchise to much applause. No offense to those before him (except perhaps John Woo) but McQuarrie has put together a nice film of friendships, action, and spying without any perfunctory car chases or shootouts to justify an action movie label. All the events here flow together very organically, like the big action scenes or even the normally silly big bad showdown at the end of the film. As the credited writer (among other things like The Usual Suspects), McQuarrie has a good handle of the different elements needed to make a movie like this work and it’s good to see him commit to coming back for another go around.
Likewise for Rebecca Ferguson, who is easily the standout of this film, who is also coming back unlike a disposable Bond girl. Ferguson’s Faust is not only an equal to Cruise’s Hunt but possibly even one better as she infiltrates herself deep into Lane’s organization to unravel it. And unlike normal female co-stars in action films, Ferguson gets quite a lot of action and plot to herself and certainly holds her own against the more established stars of the franchise. Guessing her loyalties between Hunt and Lane can become a drinking game in and of itself and she plays it perfectly even though she is merely another secret agent trying to extract herself from this life.
Between Mad Max: Fury Road and Rogue Nation, 2015 is a good year, not only for action films but for female empowerment and general kickassery. Here’s to hoping MI6 will be just as good as this one.
Comments
Post a Comment