52 years ago, in 1966, Bruce Geller created Mission: Impossible, a successful television series that featured 7 seasons and 171 fifty minute episodes, reaching its final in 1973. 23 years after the series ended and 30 years after its premiere, in 1996, directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise, a movie with the same name and based on that mythical series was released. The film was a success, which is why successive sequels were made, all starring Tom Cruise, and with different directors, such as John Woo, J. J. Abrams, Brad Bird, and finally, Christopher McQuarrie, who was in charge of directing the last two, including the most recent Mission: Impossible - Fallout, released this year and of which I will speak today.
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Year: 2018
Category: Action, Spy.
Director: Christopher McQuarrie.
Cast: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin.
Plot
Once again, Ethan accepts a mission, but he does not succeed, and the plutonium that he was supposed to recover has fallen into the hands of the Apostles, a terrorist organization. Now, Ethan and his team must do everything possible, and impossible, to recover the plutonium before the consequences are irreversible.
Opinion
As always the story begins when Ethan Hunt, IMF agent, receives a package, this time camouflaged as the Homer's Odyssey book, which contains a projector. The mission, should he choose to accept it,, is to meet with illegal traders from Eastern Europe to buy three plutonium cores, however, things do not turn out as planned when the Apostles, a terrorist organization made up of former members of the Syndicate, interfere, causing Ethan to neglect plutonium in order to save his colleague Luther Stickell. Ethan's failure causes the CIA to order August Walker, an Special Activities Division agent, to join Ethan's team to recover the plutonium. From that moment begins the development of an explosive plot of espionage and action to which the franchise has accustomed us.
I've heard some say this is the best movie of the serie, although I would not agree, in fact, I think that for me the best is still the third one in which Philip Seymour Hoffman participates, however, I consider that the current one surpasses its immediate predecessors, mainly because on this occasion a set of totally magnificent action scenes are shown, the chase across Paris with the camera filming everything at ground level it is simply sublime, of the best chase sequences I have seen in my life, not to mention the sequence in helicopters and the fact that the serie has surpassed itself as far as the fight choreography, the fight in the bathroom was really excellent.
I'm generally not a fan of the genre and it's mainly because I can never understand wtfh happens in the action scenes, some shoot around here, others shoot over there, somehow my mind gets disconnected when everyone starts killing each other, however, there is a small number of action films that meticulously take care of the staging of this type of sequences, making it not only understandable what appears on the screen but also attractive to the viewer, and the Mission Impossible is one of those that always gets it.
The performances are very good, starting with Tom Cruise of course playing the mythical Ethan Hunt, this actor as the years go by is encouraged to try increasingly dangerous action scenes, he is more active in this film than in any of the previous ones, he has really outdone himself especially considering that he is approaching 60 years old, a sign that he is aging at a rate well below the average and I do not mean his appearance, but the amazing performance he has when filming physically demanding scenes. Another one of the performances that we can find is the one of Ving Rhames like the also mythical Luther Stickell, which although in the fourth film only appeared for a moment, is the only character that can presume to have appeared in each of the movies, obviously excluding Ethan, although this time I notice him more lazy than ever.
Henry Cavill makes his appearance in the franchise and I must say that he has done very well, his character is the counterweight of the Cruise's character, and his performance as August Walker is really very good, perfectly meets the action scenes. The other team member is Simon Pegg who until now had been performing as a humorous element, although he has taken a more protagonistic role than in his previous participations, but I must say that on this occasion I feel that he is less charismatic, even so, he has his moment of glory in a scene of the film, in which I must say, I do not know very well what happened.
On the female side Rebecca Ferguson is presented, although she is not the only woman in the film, is the most important, also this character is perfect for her, in fact, just seeing that she participates in two films of the franchise already says a lot about her performance, because one of the distinctive things of the serie, as with James Bond, has been changing the feminine counterpart of Ethan in each chance. However, our protagonist and the plot reach a point where it is no longer convenient to introduce new characters because this film could be seen as a direct continuation of what happened in the previous, and for these circumstances the participation of Ferguson not only would be very good but it is ideal.
The other performances are from good to regular, the participation of Vanessa Kirby is appreciated, is the most outstanding of the secondary, since both Michelle Monaghan and Angela Bassett do nothing remarkable. As for Sean Harris, his action scenes are applauded, the rest not long ago, although the script does not allow too much, there are many actors and all have to appear on screen. Finally, the weakest of all is Alec Baldwin, seriously, what is he doing here? he was supposed to act one of the most dramatic scenes, but it has pass as one more.
Finally I must say that the movie is pure entertainment, almost two and a half hours that pass in blink, however, there are some flaws that in my opinion presents the plot and that I should mention, although to do so is I may unintentionally mention some spoilers, so it's better that if you have not seen the movie yet, stop here, and skip the spoiler.
Spoiler alert
My main problem with the script, is that apparently the writers are obsessed with the participation of Michelle Monaghan in the series, when his character does not contribute anything, more than supposedly tries to justify the reason why Ethan is still an agent of the MFI, but this could be suggested in many other ways, in fact, the story does not need that background, it just does not make sense, and in fact, it seems quite artificial to me the way in which she was included in the film. On the other hand, I must criticize the fact that at the beginning of the film Ethan only had two teammates, when historically the team was always composed of Ethan and at least three colleagues. Had they had one more member it is possible they would not have lost the plutonium in the first place, especially considering that the characters played by Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg are really hackers, not agents trained in combat, I suppose the writers preferred not to introduce another member to the team knowing that later that place would be occupied by Cavill and then by Ferguson, but that is not consistent with what was shown throughout the serie.
...
Well, I must conclude by saying that the Mission Impossible serie is now closed, even so I think it would be great to see one last movie, and I think Cruise is working on it, as long as it's just as entertaining as this was, I sure will not miss it.
Trailer
Score
8/10
Very entertaining movie with very well done action scenes, a perfect product to spend a couple of hours.