Monday , March 18 2024
than’s veteran team gets more screen time for character development as well as some great dynamics and emotional motivations for a deeper audience experience. Audiences get the expected high stakes thrills along with more personal situations of survival from various characters – both professionally and physically.

Movie Review: ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ Continues Stellar Spy Streak

MissionImpossibleRogueNationMission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, the fifth installment in the Mission Impossible film series, creates another amazing installment filled with the standard plot twists, high interest characters, and thrilling action sequences.

Tom Cruise headlines yet again as Ethan Hunt, a stellar agent in the IMF (Impossible Mission Force) organization. Most of his team also returns including Luther, played by Ving Rhames; Benji, played by Simon Pegg, and William Brandt, played by Jeremy Renner.

Cruise is flying high at 53, especially in the airplane sequence, as his genuine stuntwork showcases the profession that deserves much success for this film and many others. The necessary visual effects enhance the action that uses a realistic base in extraordinary situations. Benji’s expanded role lets audience connect with him on a more emotional level while Brandt and Luther forge their relationship in new ways.

Ethan’s veteran team gets more screen time for character development as well as some great dynamics and emotional motivations for a deeper audience experience. Audiences get the expected high stakes thrills along with more personal situations of survival from various characters – both professionally and physically.

Masterfully directed by Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher), this Mission movie puts the IMF face-to-face with the mysteriously organization called the Syndicate who were mentioned at the end of the previous installment, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, as well as the originating Mission: Impossible television series.

Rebecca Ferguson (television miniseries The White Queen, Hercules) has a star making role as Ilsa Faust, a female agent with skills on par with Ethan’s while Sean Harris (Harry Brown, Prometheus) plays the main antagonist Solomon Lane. Jens Hultén (Skyfall) plays baddie Janik Vinter who has a very intimidating nickname.

Alec Baldwin plays CIA leader Alan Hunley who questions the IMF’s credibility and relevance in the government realm while notable British government officials are played by Simon McBurney (The Theory of Everything) and Tom Hollander (Gosford Park).

Rising star Hermione Corfield (Mr. Holmes) has a small, but memorable role near the beginning of the film. Jingchu Zhang (Rush Hour 3) briefly appears with Jeremy Renner in a beginning scene as CIA agent named Lauren, but likely has an expanded role in the upcoming Chinese and Hong Kong versions of this film.

The plot, written by McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects) and Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) concentrates on development, intrigue, and justice instead of gratuitous content and body counts. This approach combines with the amazing stuntwork to create a strong, realistic experience that solidifies this film series’ positive appeal.

McQuarrie and his talented film crew do a fantastic job filming including an amazing underwater sequence in “The Taurus” (using the new 6.5K Alexa 65 camera) and a stellar chase sequence, which ramps the intensity so high that audiences get a short break before it picks up again. Audiences get a real sense of spy work, especially a dizzying sequence where characters must spot people in a crowd

The top-notch music features composer Joe Kraemer’s score and a decent variation of the popular theme song originally composed by Argentinian jazz pianist Lalo Schifrin as well as the Turandot opera (Giacomo Puccini’s final opera), which heightens the drama in an important sequence. More incorporation of previous characters (Hunt’s wife) and other elements (e.g. the “Rabbit’s Foot”) would have been nice, but are largely unnecessary though some are referenced and mentioned in this film.

Since this strong film series has great potential for more sequels, audiences can simply look forward to the appearance of these and other elements from previous installments in future Mission Impossible films.

The two-hour and 12-minute Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation comes highly recommended and rated PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, and brief partial nudity. Also showing in IMAX theaters with a special beginning countdown.

 

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