"Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" Review

Mission: Impossible, like its predecessor, the James Bond series, is a chameleon, able to adapt to different directors with relative ease. The franchise has seen a platitude of diverse visions - Brian De Palma's slick and sharp original, John Woo's explosive, slow-motion, and dove laden Mission: Impossible II, J.J. Abrams' darker, more emotional Mission: Impossible III, and Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, stacked with spectacle. Each film approaches the spy genre differently, but each are equally entertaining, whether they be thrilling, goofy, menacing, or grand. So, keeping in tradition, Christopher McQuarrie's (Jack Reacher) Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is exciting, cartoonish fun.

Tom Cruise (who still manages to be the most attractive being on screen) returns as Ethan Hunt, this time hunting the Syndicate, a terrorist organization that uses agents who have either gone rogue or are presumed dead to carry out international chaos, in hopes of inciting global revolution. Led by Solomon Kane (Sean Harris), the Syndicate has eyes and ears everywhere, always one step ahead of Hunt. 

To make matters worse, the IMF has been disbanded, due to the efforts of CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin), who believes the IMF's lack of governmental oversight has led to careless and dangerous results (Think back to Ghost Protocol and their handling of the Kremlin. You kinda see his point). In order to stop the Syndicate, Ethan has to go rogue, relying only on his teammates - Luther (Ving Rhames), Brandt (Jeremy Renner), and Benji (Simon Pegg) - and the potentially duplicitous Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a British agent who's infiltrated the Syndicate and earned Lane's trust.

Mission: Impossible has never been a plot-heavy franchise. Its strength is in its best moments: the set pieces, car chases, fights, and one-liners that make me laugh or pump my fist in the air. In essence, Rogue Nation is a Saturday morning cartoon on the big screen. And this is evident when Ethan Hunt grips onto the side of a plane 5,000 feet in the air, or drops into an aquarium-sized tank of swirling water, or races, flips, and crashes through the streets of Morocco. There's an earnestness to it all, from the pacing and effects to Cruise's stunt work. In an age of rushed sequels and masturbatory CGI, such effort is (unfortunately) a breath of fresh air. 

As far as the cast goes, we get more of what we love: Cruise's well-deserved cocky charm, Rhames' gruff quips, Pegg's awkward goofball antics. Renner gets good laugh as the straight man, working off Rhames and Baldwin, who's great as a jerk; here he channels some Walter Peck from Ghostbusters to get the pompousness just right. I like Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa; I couldn't necessarily peg whose side she was on, and her sly performance helps sell the duplicity. I am disappointed in Harris as a villain, however; he comes across as a blend of Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds and Eddie Redmayne's character in Jupiter Ascending. I think he's trying to pull what Philip Seymour Hoffman did in Mission: Impossible III, a villain who seems more casual about the evil he commits, but Harris never comes off as terrifying or intense like Hoffman, just stoic with a silly voice.

Regardless, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is still a solid, entertaining popcorn flick, with skillful filmmakers crafting some great action. The plot's outlandish and overwrought - as is every Mission: Impossible - but if you're looking for a fun time to keep the summer movie season going, Rogue Nation gets my recommendation.

Thank you all for reading; I'm the Man Without a Plan, signing off.

P.S. - There's an Easter egg for fans near the beginning of the film: take a look at what's hanging on the keychain that Ilsa is holding.