Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) Review

"I'm not in the plane!  I'm on the plane!  Open the door!"
-Ethan Hunt



Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) barely manages to escape from a terror organization known as The Syndicate.  Before he can organize a team to go after them, the Impossible Mission Force is shut down and absorbed by the CIA, forcing Hunt to go into hiding in order to track down the leader of The Syndicate, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris).  But Ethan seems to have finally met his match with Lane, who outsmarts him at every term.  Ethan is forced to ask his friends for help, forcing them to go rogue against the CIA to stop Lane,and to make matters more complicated, one of Lane's operatives, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), is prone to saving Ethan one minute and turning on him the next.  With hardly anyone he can trust, Ethan has his work cut out for him if he wants to stop The Syndicate from making their next move.


What Works:

The action scenes in Rogue Nation are top notch and really exciting.  My personal favorite is the opera scene.  It has a lot of movie pieces, but it's easy enough to follow, and it's the only sequence that truly shows us what kind of organization The Syndicate is.  Ethan and Benji (Simon Pegg) refer to them as an anti-IMF.  They have the same kind of training and techniques, but they use it for evil reasons.  The opera sequence shows them putting their plans and backups plans into action.  The fact that they have three snipers sent to do the job, plus Lane as a backup bomber, really shows how smart these people are.  It's an excellent sequence with tons of great action, some memorable fights, and a lot of tension.  It reminds of the opera sequence in Quantum of Solace, but this one is far superior.

The Morocco heist is another fantastic sequence, particularly the underwater stuff.  The scene itself is wholly impressive, but I've read that they did part of the sequence in one long take, but cut it up in the edit.  Tom Cruise apparently held his breath for six minutes.  That just takes an already impressive sequence and makes it even more so.  It's a really fun, tension-filled sequence and another highlight of the film.

The chase through Casablanca is also really great, particularly the motorcycle sequence.  The way they filmed it is very excited and a lot of fun.  It's even better than the one in Mission: Impossible 2, which is the best part of that film.

Simon Pegg gives the best performance of the film.  The look of terror he has on his face when he is rigged to a bomb really sells the 3rd act.  But even better is when he stands up to Ethan, who wants to send him out of harms way.  He puts Ethan in his place and it's pretty awesome.

Finally, Rebecca Ferguson is a great addition to the cast.  We don't know what her motives are usually and we don't know when or if she is going to turn on Ethan.  This gives every sequence she is in a bit more tension because we don't know whose side she is really on until towards the end of the film.


What Sucks:

When I saw the trailer for this film, I was pumped to see the best possible team being put together.  Not only do we have Simon Pegg, but both Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames are back.  This is my favorite possible combination of IMF agents all in one movie.  Unfortunately, both Renner and Rhames are severely underused.  They are essentially sidelined for the first two-thirds of the movie.  Renner finally gets to do a little bit when he visits the Prime Minister, which is a fun sequence, but they are both sidelined again for the majority of the 3rd act.  Rhames barely does anything in the whole film.  It's wholly disappointing.  One of the reasons Ghost Protocol is my favorite film in the series is because it's more of an ensemble film with everybody playing a part.  If Rogue Nation had done that with this caliber of a team, this could have easily been the best in the series.  Instead it's mostly the Cruise-Pegg-Ferguson show, which is still a good show, but it could have been so much more.

Finally, the premise of this film is that the villains are an evil version of the IMF, which is a great premise.  As I mentioned above, the opera sequence does a great job with this, but the rest of the film doesn't really show us that they are anything like the IMF.  An evil version of Benji or Luther would have been really cool.  The biggest problem with all of this is Solomon Lane, who we would expect to be an evil version of Ethan Hunt, simply isn't.  Ethan Hunt is a physical powerhouse as well as being extremely intelligent.  While Lane is intelligent, he isn't physical in the slightest and he really isn't all that intimidating.  He feels like a major missed opportunity (which Fallout corrects with Henry Cavil's character).  Sean Harris is woefully miscast and ultimately, Solomon Lane is my least favorite villain in the series.


Verdict:

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is a solid addition to the series with some great action sequences, the addition of Rebecca Ferguson, and a wonderful performance by Simon Pegg.  But this is also a film of missed opportunity with some of the team being completely underused and the villain is very disappointing.  Even with these flaws, Rogue Nation still has got it going on.

  8/10: Really Good 

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