Mission Impossible 5 V Five Rogue Nation

I’ve generally enjoyed the Mission: Impossible film series. It’s a franchise going on its 20th year, and it’s still going strong. Five movies deep, you’d think it would be getting stale, but somehow they keep reinvigorating it. Part of that has to do with having a different director for each movie. This keeps infusing the franchise with new ideas, and gives each film a unique vision. Christopher McQuarrie helms Rogue Nation, and brings us the best film the series has had since the first movie.

I was pretty worried after watching Ghost Protocol. That movie was such a campy, cheesy, CGI-laden piece of shit, I figured the series was doomed. Ghost Protocol brought out the worst of the spy genre. It had the over-the-top crap from the Pierce Brosnan Bond films combined with the corny jokes of the Roger Moore Bond films. It was abysmal, an absolute travesty. Sadly, it did extremely well at the box office, and I figured they would keep up that style in order to wring every last penny out of the movie going public.

That’s not to say Rogue Nation is completely devoid of humor. There is quite a bit, with most of it coming from Simon Pegg. The humor works as it’s used exactly when the movie needs a moment of levity; if things get too heavy or perhaps skew a tad unrealistic, a good joke helps re-center the audience. The humor isn’t at all cheesy or campy, and is actually funny.

Fortunately, like all the other MI films, this one had a unique voice. McQuarrie’s direction and script reign in Rogue Nation and shape it into a more grounded yet fun spy adventure. Yes, there were a couple of dreadful moments (most notably the CGI car flipping backward end-over-end), but generally the action scenes were well-paced, thrilling, and believable.

Rogue Nation is also most similar to the first film in that it mostly eschews large action set pieces in favor of fantastic stunts. The two biggest stunts are Tom Cruise hanging onto an airplane while it takes off, and Cruise having to hold his breath underwater for over three minutes. The stunts were well directed, and leave the audience with the right amount of suspense and adrenaline. Cruise also performs all his own stunts, which is a nice change of pace from the usual action movie star.

There is no Moscow blowing up and there is no CGI-sandstorm for Cruise to outrun. Instead, he must infiltrate a highly-secured computer facility, thwart a political assassination, and kidnap the British Prime Minster. The set pieces were fun and varied and generally well thought out. McQuarrie’s expert direction keeps the film chugging along with a good sense of pacing.

My only complaint with this film was that after all the amazing stunts and the really cool motorcycle chase, there wasn’t much left over for the final showdown. The battle with the villain was short and lackluster by comparison. Piggybacking off of that, I felt the villain was pretty weak. He was this doughy white guy with a strangled voice who glowers at Cruise a lot but doesn’t do anything. He’s like the worst of the Bond villains. This movie would have been improved with either a better villain or a better actor playing the role.

Overall, Rogue Nation was a very solid entry into the MI series. This franchise shows no signs of slowing down, and since most of the movies have been good, they should keep on going.

Verdict: Good