Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Review
Grand Total: 8 ½
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (underwater) +½
Really funny +½
Amazing cinematography +½
Great performance/character (Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt) +½
Great music +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 9
Overall impression
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is the fifth installment in the Mission Impossible franchise that started with the surprise success of 1996’s Mission Impossible. Since then, each film has had a new director, a new set of writers, and some interchangeable cast members, Ving Rhames’ and Tom Cruise’s characters being the only ones consistent throughout the franchise. This makes for an often disjointed feel between the installments as you don’t always get to see characters develop throughout the franchise and the stories are often unrelated. All of this having been said, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation does a good job of using the events of the previous film to will this one into existence, even if it does what all of the other films do: compromise the IMF so that Ethan Hunt and company must work by their own means. Their mission? To prove that The Syndicate, a rogue spy agency, exists and to stop it from causing further terrorism in the world. Ethan Hunt knows that said Syndicate exists because, at the beginning of the film, his mission is stopped before it could even begin, he is captured, and his secretary (the person who gives him all of his missions) is killed, all by a mysterious figure claiming to be part of this Syndicate. From then on, Hunt must find out everything about the Syndicate, thwart its next plan, and prove its existence to a very skeptical CIA head. Along the way you meet Isla Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who is working for the head of The Syndicate. That having been said, you never really know who she is or what her motivations are, because she never seems to follow through with the tasks she is given by the Syndicate. All of this nets to a non-stop, pulse-pounding suspense thriller action beast of unlimited energy that seemingly never stops running at a sprint and never lets you look away from the screen. This was one of the most kinetic films I’ve ever seen, jumping from incredible stunts to death-defying scenarios that seemingly top each other each time. Somehow, these action set-pieces never get tiring, but stay focused and acerbic thanks to a combination of the sheer entertainment value of it all, hilarious dialogue, and the fabulous cast. Seriously, all of these actors brought their A-game and really showed some talent for commanding the screen. Tom Cruise is just a presence throughout the film, always committed and believable. His character of Ethan Hunt is so compelling to watch because you can tell that the actor behind the role is so focused on what he’s doing. Simon Pegg’s character is much more involved this time, as he is far more than just the man behind the computer; he had a larger role to play in this film. Jeremy Renner’s character was a little underused this time around, but still had a role to play as part of the team. Ving Rhames, shamefully put to the background in the previous film, had a much bigger role to play in this one; he definitely stole a few scenes. As much as all of these characters were entertaining to watch throughout the film and worked well as a team, their actual character was shallow in general, without any of the scenes in this film dedicated to developing anybody. Neither the mission nor the situations that the characters get into are ever personal in any way. While one could argue that this simply allows the film to be free without worrying about how the mission is affecting things and that the film has enough to worry about already, I would point to the previous two films as counterexamples. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol managed to stay personal through the introduction of Jeremy Renner’s character William Brandt. For me at least, I found Brandt’s backstory the most interesting part of the film, as he’s more related to the characters he works with than the film previously let on. A fantastic confrontational scene between Brandt and Hunt reveals his backstory while staying suspenseful, as you really don’t know who he is until that point. In this film the new character, Isla Faust, has no such personal backstory. She’s an awesome character to watch fight, but she isn’t really connected to the other characters the way Brandt was in the previous film. In Mission: Impossible 3, Hunt’s wife being on the line throughout the entire film made everything personal and set the stakes far higher than any world-destroying plan could have done. That isn’t to say that Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation film isn’t entertaining or compelling, it just is never really all that interesting past the story elements. Instead, you’re just along for the ride as you watch these characters you already pretty much know and watch them do amazing things. Seriously, this film was incredibly entertaining, featured some of the best stuntwork I’ve ever seen, and was all shot beautifully. An underwater sequence that is done in one, really long take, is so suspenseful because it feels like it is actually happening. To top things off, this film features probably the most impressive motorcycle chase sequence I’ve ever seen in a film ever. Given that that wasn’t even the biggest stunt in the entire film says so much about how incredible this movie is as an action film. Lack of character aside, this is an incredibly entertaining piece of modern action that will keep you fixated on the screen for the entire runtime.
Total: 8
Mission: Impossible Review
Grand Total: 6 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (telephone turnaround) +½
Too short -1
Obvious plothole -½
Overuse of effects -½
Total: 5 ½
Overall impression
Mission: Impossible is about a team of undercover spies who run missions to aid their government. The team, a part of the IMF (Impossible Mission Force), consists of many names, but includes Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) as the one to remember. As it stands, an unknown man has stolen a computer disc containing the code names of every undercover agent in Europe. A second disc, in Prague, exists that links these code names to the true names of the undercover agents. The IMF’s mission is to film the thief stealing the drive and then apprehend him. Everything seems to be going as planned, until everything goes wrong. Not only does the mission fail, but Ethan Hunt is framed for its failure to go along with all that has transpired. Now Ethan must track down whoever it was that framed him while worrying about those disks making it out into the public, compromising and most certaining condemning those agents to death. The biggest problem with this film is pacing. The first forty-five minutes of the movie are committed to this setup that I just described, building excellent tension and keeping you glued to the screen. But the film’s runtime is only about an hour forty, so the plot gets really rushed in trying to fit the rest of the movie, which contains far more content than the setup, into a window of time that was far too small. The rest of the film is full of plot twists, reveals, and exposition. Unfortunately, it is done so rapidly that it is sometimes really difficult to understand what is going on, who is what character, and how things are transpiring. I just wish the film had given itself more time to think things through so that we could spend our time getting invested instead of trying to figure out what was going on. Not only that, but some of the reveals and twists actually conflict and the story begins to undo itself a little bit. It doesn’t help that a lot of the seriousness from the first half is lost to the cheesy special effects and music in the second hour. Really, the effects in this film are really, really dated and the final scene on top of a high-speed train is especially bad. The technology that the film incorporates is pretty dated too, but not so much so that you can’t understand what it is that the characters are doing. All of that having been said, the film stays very entertaining throughout and a lot of the reveals, especially one in the telephone booth, are very effective. What's nice about the film as well is that it nicely sets up a universe in which Ethan Hunt and the IMF could run other missions and do other covert things. At the end of the day, Mission: Impossible was a little bit cheesy and convoluted, but had a solid start and maintained its sense of entertainment throughout.
Total: 7
Mission: Impossible II Review
Grand Total: 3 ¼
Technical
Watchable 4
Suspenseful +1
Too long -1
Obvious plothole -½
Bad music -½
Uneven tone -½
Total: 2 ½
Overall impression
Mission: Impossible II is about a new mission Ethan Hunt and his team must accomplish involving a lethal virus and its cure. Both were created by a scientist trying to find a cure to influenza and, though that is a typical reason for a movie virus to exist, at least the movie explained how it came about. It doesn’t explain anything about how the virus spreads, only that it does. The scientist didn’t want to allow the virus to get out into the open so he decided to take both of them to the IMF. En route, however, he is killed and the virus and its cure fall into the hands of Sean Ambrose, a rogue IMF agent. Hunt must recover the virus using Nyah, Ambrose’ former lover. This film has a potentially good story to it, with this virus being a very viable type of mission Ethan Hunt would go on. The way in which the story reveals how the virus would be used is also clever. Ethan Hunt’s attachment to Nyah makes for a good grounding tool for the entire movie as Nyah is somebody you actually care about. The film does have good ideas at its roots. The problems are in the execution of those ideas. Director John Woo’s use of slow-motion is awful in this film, probably doubling the runtime. Almost all of the action scenes are shot in slow-motion, replacing any suspense with humor as the audience feels just how cheesy slow-motion is when used everywhere. To make matters worse, this movie has no new inventions up its sleeve. The masks from the first movie are back and used all over the place, also reducing suspense. How can you be afraid for the characters on screen when, in all likelihood, one of them is hiding behind a mask? Add a strange score that really doesn’t fit the movie, and you have a tonal mess. You’re not sure when the movie wants you to get attached to someone, when things are trying to be serious, and when things are just plain cheesy. This movie, in the hands of a more serious director, would have been a major success because this story has a lot of potential. The performances in the film are pretty one-note as well, except for Thandie Newton’s performance as Nyah. Though the character is underdeveloped, she did a good job of portraying the fear her character would feel. You too would probably be paranoid if you were sent back to a murderer boyfriend while secretly working for his mortal enemies. Unfortunately, though, the slow motion took up a lot of time that could have been used to tell a compelling backstory to make her character rounder. As it stands, the cheesiness and gimmicks of Mission: Impossible II make the film an overlong mess.
Total: 4
Mission: Impossible III Review
Grand Total: 6 ¾
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (opening interrogation) +½
Great music +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 7 ½
Overall impression
Mission: Impossible III tells the continued story of Ethan Hunt. This one, for the first time ever, actually feels grounded in something real and concrete. Ethan Hunt is engaged (later becomes married) to Julia, a hospital nurse, in a hope to get away from his work with the IMF. He had quit being a field agent and began to teach others to become the same before quitting completely. One such agent he taught, Agent Ferris, is kidnapped by Owen Davien, a man after an object known as the Rabbit’s Foot. Hunt, having trained Agent Ferris, goes in with his crew to rescue her. He fails. Hunt returns to the field to follow through with what she was doing. The problems start happening when, as Hunt goes after Davien, Davien learns of his name and promises to kill his wife. The stakes in this movie are definitely higher than they were in the first two Mission: Impossible movies. The movie spends a good deal of the initial half hour establishing the relationship between Hunt and his wife. This pace is much slower than the one featured in the original Mission: Impossible and doesn’t really speed up too much throughout the film. Yes, there are action scenes here and there, but the film doesn’t frantically jump from one to the next the way it did in the first two films; this one takes time to make characters actual people. They discuss why it is or isn’t possible to escape the work they do and why it is or is not possible to have a real relationship while doing this kind of work. Moreover, we get to see what it’s like when Hunt fails a mission and lets someone close to him die. For the first time in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Tom Cruise actually has to act. The interrogation scene that opens this film showcases just how well he can do it too. This interrogation between Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Davien brings out the best of both talents as they go from calm and collected to desperate and filled with rage. While this villain does seem to be way better than the villains in Mission: Impossible films of the past, he really isn’t much of a presence in the film after this scene ends. The way he dies is also really underwhelming. The movie, as a whole is a little underwhelming given how high the stakes are and how good the opening is. The rest of the movie is a bit of a fizzle instead of the dynamite it could’ve been. All of the positives I have mentioned above are the ingredients to brew up a fantastic film, but what we got was a decent-to-good film. The blame there has to go to J.J. Abrams. Heard of him? This was his directorial debut. He uses a lot of bright lights, close-up shots, and shaky camerawork that is just not very effective most of the time. Everything feels like it could be a lot smoother and tighter. His writing, however, is much better. While still not amazing, this writing easily blows away the writing in the first two Mission: Impossible movies because you genuinely believe that these are people talking and you actually know what’s going on throughout the entire film. Davien wants the Rabbit’s Foot and Hunt wants Davien. The Rabbit’s Foot is never actually explained in the film, which was a bit of a disappointment as well given how relevant the objects of the previous films were. After everything is said and done, the film tries to wrap itself up in a nice little bow. But you can’t help but thinking that this movie had so much that it could’ve taken advantage of and just didn’t quite live up to its potential. It still creates good characters and puts them in some great scenes. It just didn’t work as well as it could have as a whole.
Total: 6
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Review
Grand Total: 8 ¼
Technical
Engaging 6
Suspenseful +1
An amazing scene (Burj Khalifa climb) +½
Great performance/character (Jeremy Renner
as William Brandt) +½
Great music +½
Amazing cinematography +½
Obvious plothole -½
Total: 8 ½
Overall impression
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is the fourth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise. This time, Ethan Hunt and his team must prevent a terrorist codenamed Cobalt from acquiring the nuclear launch codes, launch device, and satellite required to send a missile into the United States to start a global nuclear war. Before they do any of that, however, they have to figure out who he is. That information is stored in the Kremlin. As Hunt and his team infiltrate said target, their mission goes awry. The Kremlin is blown up by Cobalt himself and Hunt’s team is held responsible. The secretary of the IMF, accompanied by his chief analyst, William Brandt, pick up Hunt and declare the entire IMF disavowed to cover up the Kremlin bombing. While in the car discussing this, Cobalt and his agents attack, killing the secretary and marooning Hunt and Brandt. They must reunite with their team, figure out what Cobalt was doing in the Kremlin and why he blew it up. Then they have to stop him from creating a global nuclear war. This movie is so much better than the first three films in the franchise because it mixes great action, a good pace, and character. The most important of those three is character. Hunt’s team is comprised of Benji from the previous film (so we know plenty about him already), Agent Carter, who is new but given a good backstory early on, and now Brandt, whose backstory was the most interesting part of this movie for me. To make matters even better, all of the wrongs of Mission: Impossible III are righted in this film. No more shaky shots or annoying lighting are to be found. Instead, director Brad Bird creates gorgeous shots and smooth camerawork everywhere, especially in the film’s biggest stunt: where Ethan Hunt climbs up the side of the Burj Khalifa. Tom Cruise really climbed up this thing to do the stunt and the camerawork is amazing, making you feel on the edge of your seat because what they’re doing is all really up there. The action scenes and stunts in this film are far better than those in any of the previous movies, and really showcase how smart this movie is with its use of technology and setpieces. The technology in this film is definitely something worth mentioning as well. Every single bit of tech that Hunt’s team uses malfunctions in some way or another. The masks, tracking devices, magnets, and other miscellaneous gadgets are never as reliable as the people on the team are, working together. The chemistry these actors have together is also really good, and they play off each other well. As a result, the film is often quite funny. Most of this comes from Simon Pegg’s Benji but a lot comes from Brandt as well. Luther (from the previous three films) is in this movie as well, but in a much smaller role. I missed him and his humor. Still, the fact that there are fewer characters keeps the team easy to keep track of the whole time. Though not without a few exceptions, this movie is very coherent and easy to follow. There are some characters and little things that come and go in the movie that are clearly plot devices, but they’re involvement is so brief that you’ll soon forget them as the movie moves along with its primary plotline: stopping the launch of those nuclear missiles. The villain who is supposed to launch the missiles is really underdeveloped as well, but the movie is primarily about the team, not the villain they’re up against. As far as Mission: Impossible movies go, this one is better than the previous three in every way. It has minor issues with some characters coming and going at the plot’s expense, and some bits are a little hard to follow, but is a great film nonetheless.
Total: 8