Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Rating: 8/10 (6 September 2015)

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, is the fifth installment in the franchise and hasn't lost any of its previous thrills. This addition to the Mission Impossible franchise was directed by Christopher McQuarrie and stars returning actors Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Ving Rhames as well as newcomer Rebecca Ferguson. This is without a doubt the best fifth movie in a franchise ever, (Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back was the third movie in that franchise despite being episode five).
When the CIA shuts down the Impossible Mission Force (aka the IMF) Ethan Hunt (Cruise) goes rogue to reveal the Syndicate: an evil criminal organization acting as an Anti-IMF. Along his way he works with fan-favorite Benji Dunn (Pegg) and a mysterious woman Ilsa Faust. Together they must fight against the Syndicate, while trying to avoid the CIA operatives hunting them.
This movie perfectly balances suspenseful thrills and breakneck action. The story keeps the audience on the edge of their seats from the beginning till the credits roll. There was a lot of doubt surrounding this movie, especially considering Tom Cruise is growing older and plans on continuing to make action flicks. Cruise proves everyone wrong as he resumed his role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. He was as energetic as ever continuing his trend of doing almost all his own stunts. In this film we got to see a very different side of Ethan: A much more reserved and secretive man. This development was hinted at in the previous film Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and it adds a nice connection for audiences.
Simon Pegg returns for his role as the hilarious computer genius Benji Dunn. As always Benji's character is clever and thoroughly fun to watch. He creates a nice relatable character for the audience to associate with. In a movie full of highly trained spies and assassins, Benji is a normal guy who is amazing with technology. He randomly blurts out things throughout the movie that the audience is thinking. Where this very human character made a nice connection for the audience, there were moments scattered throughout the film that would have been enhanced if Benji had done something to effect them. Mostly, Benji served as comedic relief and occasionally seemed like a damsel in distress.
Speaking of damsels: Rebecca Ferguson was outstanding in this movie. She played the female equivalent of Ethan Hunt: Ilsa Faust. She succeeded in being the most mysterious and interesting part of this film, in a movie about a mysterious criminal organization. Not to say the story was uninteresting, but Ilsa really captivated the audience from her very first appearance. The audience was always engaged and excited whenever she was on screen. This is because not only the character, but also the great dynamic energy between Cruise and Ferguson.
The action in this movie was very impressive and thrilling. With the trailer showing as much as it did, there was a general sense of worry that the audience had already seen all the best sequences. Thankfully, the very prominent plane sequence from the trailer didn't have a real impact on the story or movie as a whole. Nevertheless the scene was still very intense and fun. This movie also has the best motorcycle chase scene possibly to ever be on screen (others include Terminator 2: Judgement day and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). It was filmed in a breakneck exhilarating way to keep the audience on the edge of their seats and breathless. In general the fight sequences were filmed in a wide shot, so that you could see and understand what was happening. That being said, there were a few fight scenes when the film reverted to a series quick cuts making it hard to grasp what was happening, but these were limited. Filmmakers usually rely on this method for action scenes, because actors don't do their own stunts and the cuts hide the fact that a stunt double is in the actor's place. Because Tom Cruise insists on doing his own stunts, these "quick cut" action sequences are minimized and audiences reap the benefits of more intriguing action scenes.
The most obvious missing element from Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, is a threatening villain. This is true for all of the previous Mission Impossible movies, the closest the franchise has come is Philip Seymour Hoffman's villain in Mission Impossible III. The villain in the fifth movie succeeded in being hatable and down right infuriating, but he wasn't ever intimidating: The lead henchmen were more threatening than him. The lack of a frightening main villain was easy to miss, because the real villains were the Syndicate as a whole.
This film was exhilarating and very enjoyable for returning fans of the series or newcomers that haven't seen any of the previous films. All the characters masterfully work together to create a fun spy thriller full of breathless action and a compelling story. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation gets a 8.0/10 stars.