“Mission Impossible: Fallout” is the sixth part of the Mission Impossible franchise. Starring Tom ‘American Jackie Chan’ Cruise, this movie is an example on how to make a stunning and amazing action movie. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, same director from “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation”, gives us a delightful experience and in my opinion, the best action movie since “Mad Max: Fury Road”.
The movie don’t mess around giving us a lot of background story to develop the plot, just gives us the information needed to get the action started. The fast pace this movie has is remarkable, as it gives us action sequence follow by another action sequence. If you want a Terrence Malick’s complex plot, well you are definitely watching the wrong movie, but this script makes a lot of sense and is pretty enjoyable. The director realizes, this is an action movie and the focus is on the action sequences and my god did he achieve that perfectly. I truly believe this is an achievement as this is the first movie of the saga that is a proper sequel to the previous one, and starts pretty much after the previous one ended, but if you haven’t seen “Rogue Nation” you can still watch it. You will lose some elements of the plot and some character background, but won’t make the movie experience worse.
But what we are all here for are the action sequences, and they are just incredible. The way every single detail have been taken care of is a delight to the view, and not unique to this installment but here we see it perfected. I’m not just talking about the fight choreography but the cinematography, as you follow the scene perfectly without getting lost in the fight, an issue that many action movies in the past have struggled with. The work done by Rob Hardy, the cinematographer, and Eddie Hamilton, the editor, is excellent as we can follow Cruise’s character throughout the hole sequence, running, falling or speeding, making us stay on the edge of our seat until the scene ends.
Every role in this movie fits perfectly. Henry Cavill’s character, the badass agent who gives zero fucks about anything, to contrast Cruise’s character who cares more about the loved ones than the “greater good”, is developed in a way that makes Cavill an excellent choice for the part. The secondary roles portrayed by Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Rebecca Ferguson deliver as well as in the past movies, and Angela Bassett and Alec Baldwin complement those roles to wrap up a pretty strong cast.
To sum up, action movies have been getting a lot of hate, and this is not because people hate the genre, it is because they love it and have seen how many directors and production crews forgot how to make a good one. I will not delve into this, but there is an excellent video by Chris Stuckmann where he explains in detail what has gone wrong with this genre and I suggest you go and watch it. However, movies like “Baby Driver”, “Mad Max: Fury Road” and this latest “Mission Impossible” show that good action movies can still be made. This is the kind of movie that is worth going to the cinema for.
