Hey there everyone, hope you're all doing well, and welcome to my review of the film Mission Impossible: Fallout! Every year we see numerous action movies come out, with huge budgets, and over the top scenes of all out mayhem. But very few manage to elevate themselves beyond the typical throw away popcorn flick, that you're going to forget about in a couple days. For every Die Hard, or Mad Max Fury Road, we get dozens of Transformers, Battleships, and Sharknadoes. The Mission Impossible franchise has found a winning formula that not only produced an amazing movie, but has now pumped out six top notch films that continue to impress audiences. Admittedly I haven't seen all six of them, but the ones I have watched have all been great action movies. So let me give you the rundown of the latest one in the series.
Mission Impossible: Fallout is the sixth installment of the franchise that has been around since the original in 1996. The film stars Tom Cruise as the lead character Ethan Hunt, who is an agent of the fictional Impossible Missions Force, or IMF. Along side him you also have returning actors such as, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, and Alec Baldwin. Two new additions to the cast, who do a great job, are Angela Bassett, and Henry Cavill. The film opens with Hunt and his crew in the middle of intercepting a black market deal for three plutonium cores that could be used as extremely powerful bombs.
They think they have everything under control, but something goes wrong, and Hunt is forced to choose between saving his crew mate, or getting his hands on the plutonium. He decides to save his friend, and the three cores are taken away by the Apostles, a terrorist group who want to cause chaos, and disrupt the world order. After interrogating a nuclear weapons expert, the IMF team learn where these cores will be next, and they hatch a plan to try and acquire them again. But before they can put their plan into action they get a surprise visit by a member of the CIA. August Walker, played by Henry Cavill, is a CIA special agent who will be joining Hunt on this mission to make sure nothing goes wrong this time.
The two of them don't get along, and have different methods of doing things, but are forced to work together for the rest of this mission. Hunt is more caring and precise, where Walker is more cold and destructive. You could say one is like a scalpel, and the other a hammer. This creates an interesting dynamic between these two characters that I really enjoyed. From there the movie takes many twists and turns, going from one location to the next, with some incredible set pieces, and very impressive action sequences. I can't really give any more information about the plot after this point without it severely spoiling the film for you, and it's best to go into this knowing as little as possible.
Since this is a spy movie you can obviously expect a lot of subterfuge, and it does a good job of subverting your expectations at times. But the real aspect of Fallout that kept me engaged, and on board, was the excellent pacing. Not only do the actors give great performances, but the action is probably the best I've seen all year. Scene after scene of breathtaking action sequences, all shot beautifully. There's such an intensity of movement, that gives everything a more realistic feel to it, even though what you're seeing is so over the top. The only thing I can compare it to is Mad Max Fury Road, which is very high praise.
The cinematography is excellent the whole way through this film. Everything is shot with such beautiful symmetry, making almost every scene a visual spectacle. No matter what type of shot it is, a dialog heavy exposition scene, or an all out action sequence, you never lose where it's taking place. You always feel like you're right there with the actors, and this movie goes to many different locations. On top of all this, the fact that Tom Cruise does all of these death defying stunts himself still amazes me. There's one scene where he's running across rooftops, jumping from one to the next, and while shooting this he smashed his foot on the side of the building, shattering his ankle in real life. But he still climbed up and continued limping along, and they kept this in the movie.
I think the biggest problem some people are having with this film is the fact that it's the sixth one in the series, and if you've seen all of them, maybe it's getting old now. For me, the only compliant I have is that you kind of know it's all going to work out for the IMF somehow, which takes away some of the suspense. But everything is so well done, and entertaining, that it doesn't really matter. This has great performances, excellent pacing, incredible action scenes, and it makes me want to go back and watch the ones I've missed, just to see more of these characters doing their thing. If you're a fan of the action genre, you wont want to miss what this movie has to offer. I'm going to give Mission Impossible: Fallout a grade of...……………………
A -
Thank you for reading my review of Mission Impossible: Fallout, I hope you enjoyed it!