MIRN is a tedious but passable action film if you don't need plot consistency

Rating: 5/10 (7 August 2015)

Mission Impossible: Action packed swiss cheese.
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (MIRN) is action packed, mildly entertaining and pointless. The title is misleading. There is no "Rogue Nation"; it's mainly one villain who is not badass enough to be a threat. Sure, he has henchmen, but nothing like Odd Job or Jaws. And the villain in no way matches the psychopathological heights of Silva (Javier Bardem) in Bond's Skyfall or the series of homicidal CIA section chiefs and handlers in the Bourne films.
The script is focused on action and not character. And certainly the writing is not too concerned with plot holes and inconsistencies. There is the requisite number of gadgets in the film, but when the gadgets would minimize the danger, somehow, there are none available. This is the risk in being gadget happy; they become a crutch and a substitute for character's abilities and the audience wonder why you just don't have a gadget for all situations. One thing the Bond films have done recently is minimized the gadgets and they always told you in the beginning of the films what they had on hand so you weren't left wondering later whey Bond didn't just pull one out on call.
Cruise passes as an action hero but not as an actor. He brings the film down, and the script doesn't help. The airplane action scene in the trailer seen countless times is interesting, but it doesn't compare to climbing the outside of the building in Dubai in the previous MI film. Seeing it in the trailer over and over drained the scene of its surprise and it became passé. "Oh, this scene again ho hum."
The plot is full of holes and makes little sense. Yes, it's action, but it's still a film and should hold together as a coherent piece. Mission Impossible is based on a TV show, and thus has little direction. Bond and Bourne films are based on books, thus giving them more depth.
The film create a flimsy world where we constantly see the man behind the curtain, and it isn't attached to the real world. There is no semblance that Hunt is connected to the real world at all, or that his actions will save anyone but himself. Most of us want our heroes to be rebels who fight for something bigger than themselves. Hunt has no sense of irony here, no awareness that he is part of the machine he rages against.
The camera is too stagnant during the action scenes as if close ups or pans would destroy the shots. Certainly, there was a trend of hyper-editing in action films for awhile. However, editing is a way to make films intimate, get us closer to the characters, help us see the action from their point of view. The choices of camera angles and editing were mundane and uninteresting.
The acting was pedestrian and the writers and director underused Renner, the best actor in the film. Pegg was adequate, and this isn't his best genre. Ferguson plays an MI6 agent who is not just a pretty face like so many other female cops and agents who appear they couldn't beat up a six-year-old, let alone a villain. She pulls of the physicality and acquits herself well, better than Cruise.
Sean Harris plays the 'dangerous' Solomon Lane, super villain. He doesn't pull it off, whether because he is miscast or because of the writing. The villainous plot elements were poorly scripted and tedious, and few actors could have come out of MIRN winning any awards.
Rating: Matinée
There is just enough action in MIRN to pull off a passable film. There are also a few surprises and an ending that allows one to forgive some of the predictability and tedium of the film. But it's not great. Peace, Tex Shelters