Review: Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is attempting to track down a secretive criminal organisation known as The Syndicate, but CIA director Hunley (Alec Baldwin) laughs the very notion of The Syndicate off, and sets about disbanding IMF while he’s at it, even making Hunt a wanted fugitive. However, Hunt refuses to be brought in nor will he stop in his mission to get to the truth about The Syndicate and bringing it down. Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, and Ving Rhames reprise their roles as IMF team members Benji, Brandt, and Luther. Sean Harris plays bad guy Solomon Lane, with Rebecca Ferguson playing Ilsa Faust, whose allegiances may be somewhat fluid, or at least not as they first appear. Simon McBurney and Tom Hollander appear briefly as Hunley’s British counterpart and the British PM, respectively.

 

I didn’t think much of the first “Mission Impossible” film, and John Woo’s “Mi2” was embarrassingly overdone. However, from “Mission Impossible III”, the series started working for me, and I really loved “Ghost Protocol”. When I tell you that this 2015 film from writer/director Christopher McQuarrie (writer of “The Usual Suspects”, “Valkyrie” and “Edge of Tomorrow”) isn’t as good as “Ghost Protocol”, just bear in mind that it’s still on pretty equal footing with the solid “Mission Impossible III”. It’s certainly a lot better than McQuarrie’s previous directorial effort with Cruise, the forgettable “Jack Reacher”.

 

I don’t want to suggest that the entire reason why it’s not as good is because Paula Patton isn’t in it, but I have to admit that her absence is felt here. I may not blame the absence of Patton, but it’s clear to me that Rebecca Ferguson just doesn’t cut it as the female lead. Fans of her TV work (which I haven’t seen) might furiously disagree with me, but on evidence here I’m not a fan. This series really is starting to turn into what the Bond franchise should be like these days, but if we’re comparing this to Bond, Ferguson ticks none of the boxes for me as a ‘Bond Girl’. Her Swedish accent is about as evident as Noomi Rapace’s (barely at all), so she’s somewhat convincing playing a supposed Brit. However, she’s not much of an actress, doesn’t have much charisma or screen presence, and to be honest I’d almost rather see Ving Rhames in a bikini. Just not my type. She doesn’t kill the film, but I’m definitely not seeing what a lot of other people seem to.

 

As for lead villain Sean Harris, he’s an underrated and incredibly creepy-looking actor, but his performance is far more interesting than his strangely underused character. The lead villain really ought to have more screen time, I think in order to really be effective. Meanwhile, Alec Baldwin plays the J.T. Walsh role of ‘humourless authority figure on the wrong side of every argument’ well for what little it’s worth.

 

The film starts really well with cute interplay, an exciting music score by Joe Kraemer (“House of the Dead 2”, “Jack Reacher”) and Tom Cruise (who briefly sports the worst beard in cinematic history at one point) hopefully not doing 100% of what is a truly reckless, crazy stunt involving him hanging on to the outside of an aeroplane. It’s good stuff. We also get a fun twist on the usual ‘Your mission, if you choose to accept it’ thing which was terrific to see. Hell, even Ferguson (or her fight double) gets in on some nice martial arts action early on. When at 40 minutes the film got all Hitchcockian and had Cruise tackle an Aryan henchman whilst someone sings ‘Nessun Dorma’, I had pretty much no major complaints thus far. For some reason, the only times I like Simon Pegg are in the “Star Trek” films and this franchise, he’s terrific here as comic relief, one of the highlights of the film. It thankfully keeps on being entertaining throughout. Another highlight of the film is the excellent and funny car chase about 70 minutes in resulting in a truly ricockulous (and admittedly clearly CGI-augmented) car stunt. The subsequent motorbike chase kicks arse too, this film’s action scenes leave “Mi2” director John Woo’s entire oeuvre in the dust.

 

This franchise is starting to put Daniel Craig’s 007 to shame. Yes, this does feel like a bit of ‘more of the same from the last film’, but 007 has been getting away with that for decades, so I’ll let it slide with Ethan Hunt, too. It’s not quite as good as the previous “Ghost Protocol” but not far off and certainly gets it done in the action department. Rebecca Ferguson isn’t a very interesting co-lead, but this is still a rock-solid action film. Hell, take Ferguson out and it’d definitely get up there with “Ghost Protocol”. Why did it take so long for this franchise to warm up? McQuarrie’s screenplay is based on a story by McQuarrie and Drew Pearce (who mostly comes from a short film background).

 

Rating: B-