Still Agelessly Cruisin'

Rating: 8/10 (2 August 2015)

I keep hearing that the Fast and Furious franchise is this epitome of a series in resurgence. Well, the latest Mission: Impossible entry comes quickly on the heels of Furious 7 and squashes that assertion. Instead of simply bloating its cast and pitting muscle-heads against one another, the Mission: Impossible series chooses to ramp up the sheer velocity of its action and the inventiveness of its setpieces. Rogue Nation reunites us with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) who's now searching for a secret terrorist organization named "The Syndicate" (accidentally birthed from British intelligence) while his own agency, the IMF, is facing its own problems when the CIA and Senate oversight committee begin questioning its legitimacy. Yes, the convoluted type of plot is back, but that's honestly what keeps this brand of movies refreshing.
Above all, Rogue Nation finds the perfect balance between a spy thriller and a purely volatile action movie. We see plenty of extended sequences where agents from different intelligence agencies share extensive dialogue about government secrets and confidential documents—the colors are worn out and the background is grayish. About ten minutes later, Hunt is suddenly zooming through Moroccan highways on a speed-bike in a wild chase. Sometimes, non-stop action can exhaust me (The Avengers 2 and The Expendables 3 being recent exemplars), but when one creative and memorable action sequence leads into another and then blends with another one, you can't help but excitedly tap your feet along and join the sweet ride. Contrary to the style of most modern action flicks, the destruction is executed so carefully and lucidly here. One segment, in particular, transpires within the beautiful edifice of a Vienna opera house as we see the pieces falling into their respective positions, slowly and tensely piling each detail/obstacle into the fray until everything collides into a delightfully (not exactly literal) explosive result.
For some reason, I still struggle in believing that Tom Cruise actually performs his own stunts, which only seem to continually grow in apparent impossibility. How could he scale up the scary enormity that is the Burj Khalifa or speed-run and jump onto a plane taking off, hanging onto the hatch as the plane rises and rises to frightening heights? What kind of movie star has the balls for such risky ventures? In that case, the action choreography is absolutely spectacular, also managing to masterfully fuse itself with some noteworthy physical comedy. In addition to the sheer energy of these scenes, a terrific cast raises the level of entertainment to an even greater point, especially when you have such hilarious comic relief in Simon Pegg and a new female addition in up-and-coming actress, Rebecca Ferguson. She basically replaces Paula Patton with so much more emotional complexity, heroism, and an incredible skillset that easily rivals Ethan Hunt's with the two oftentimes fighting side-by-side throughout the films' duration. Thankfully, she isn't required to fill that dull romantic interest role; instead, Ilsa has a mysterious part in all this, and a lot of focus is paid to her well-rooted arc and its fair share of twists and turns.
Continue the review at: http://moviemuscle.net/mission-impossible-rogue- nation-review/