Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
(’15 review)

3 outta 5

There is a lot of nifty set-pieces and narrative trickery in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.  It doesn’t have the Brian De Palma weirdness of the first Impossible, the John Woo slow-motion doves of M:I:2, the heart and kinetic kick of J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III, or the humorous inventiveness of Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.  At least Rogue Nation offers a decent female counterpart to Tom Cruise’s sturdy hero and the action bits are jaw-dropping.  It may be lacking the character pizzazz from previous instalments, but the spy scenes are really spectacular.

Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is a super-spy on the Impossible Mission task force, along with his IMF companions Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), and Brandt (Jeremy Renner).   Unfortunately for them, the IMF has been disbanded due to the actions of an overzealous CIA director Alan (Alec Baldwin), which is bad timing since an organization of evil superspies, The Syndicate led by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), are plotting global destruction.   Hunt’s only lead is a mysterious female double-agent Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) who saved him from certain doom but will the Syndicate agent help or is she leading Hunt and his friends into their deaths? 

The notion that the IMF has been disbanded or the crew is operating independently has happened in pretty much every single instalment so it’s kind of weightless.  There is one really great twist early on when Hunt sits down for the iconic “Your Mission, should you choose to accept it” briefing that twists in a menacing way with a powerful payoff.  Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who penned the amazingly shifty The Usual Suspects, there are neat subversive moments scattered throughout.   While there are some cool speeches, particularly by the bad guy and Baldwin’s CIA head, oddly, the dialogue patter isn’t as zippy as the previous two instalments. Renner’s Brandt had some droll spark in Ghost Protocol but now is basically reduced to a talking head.  However, he does get in a funny bit of angry barking with Rhames when the two are stuck in a car chase. 

Pegg as Benji is a decent counterbalance to Cruise’s intensity.  The thing that makes Pegg such a good actor is that while he may have a jovial exterior, he shows some dramatic heft.  There’s a fantastic café meeting between Pegg, Cruise and Ferguson and the reason it works so well is Pegg selling the drama. Throughout the film, Cruise engages in some nifty stunts like hanging off a plane.  Cruise also has some very amusing eye-rolling reactions to the insanity surrounding him in the middle of action beats.     There are some moments where Ethan seems like a crazy person babbling about shadowy conspiracies but that happens in just about every Mission: Impossible movie anyway. 

Ferguson is pretty great as Ilsa’s shifting allegiances keep Hunt on his toes.  However, for a character that’s portrayed as a strong female, Isla still has some reductive moments where she needs saving by the male heroes, or has the requisite classy skimpy formal dress, sexy back nudity, and rising out of the water in a bikini.  Also Ferguson looks remarkably like Michelle Monaghan, the actress who played Hunt’s wife in the last two films.  Maybe that’s intentional but there is nary a mention of Hunt’s wife which makes the pseudo-romantic overtones of Hunt and Ilsa really weird.  For people who know the series history, you’ll be wondering where Hunt’s wife Julia went.  There is a nice inversion where Julia was used as third-act kidnap bait in the third movie but here the female lead of Ilsa is a capable on her own and the third-act kidnap bait in Rogue Nation is an unexpected choice. 

There is a good pace to Rogue Nation off the jump; it goes from a spectacular plane sequence right into Hunt being captured by the bad guys.  It does sag at certain points when there isn’t active spy chicanery but the movie gleefully delivers many set-pieces.   While there may not be a bit as fantastic as Hunt climbing the building in Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation does deliver an amazing break-in scene where Hunt is submerged underwater at a computer core.  A sequence set at the opera has a nice slow-burn as Hunt has to pick off multiple sniper targets without the opera audience noticing.  Interestingly, the finale on city streets has a small scale gritty immediacy, which is needed after the spectacle.  For all the brouhaha about the Syndicate being an anti-IMF the only real competent ones are Solomon and Ilsa, the rest just seem like the same generic baddie cannon fodder.  Harris plays Solomon like a quiet-voiced sociopath who has everything under control, which isn’t exactly original but it works.

The best caper film in theatres right now is probably Ant-Man simply because it upends the formula. Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation is a tad more conventional but this is a twisty and enjoyable caper flick that may stumble when it’s not doing spy trickery but when things kick into gear, it’s a blast.