The Mission: Impossible series is one that I have never touched, and I have never been all that interested in watching. To me, from the outside, they seemed like fun action films which were, at least when the first film was released in 1996, capitalising on the very successful James Bond reboot which had been kicked off just the year before with Goldfinger (1995). One thing I was aware of from the series is the theme tune because of course I was, who isn't. But apart from this I knew every little. However, since starting this review blog I have been watching and reviewing a new film every week, and it has come to that time of year where there is nothing coming out that really peaks my interest, and so Mission: Impossible - Fallout it is for this week. And I have to be honest, this is one of the better films I’ve seen this year. I was very, very surprised. I was entering a film series in the 6th instalment half expecting a film that was at both times dragging its wheels and also over complicating things to try and outdo other films in the series. However, what I got was a brilliantly fun action romp which felt like a short 147 minutes (honestly did not realise it was that long until I looked it up just now). Despite the good reviews I had heard about this and the other films in the series I was still totally taken aback by how much I enjoyed this film, and it has made me reconsider my stance on the series and made me want to spend ten hours of my short life watching the rest of these films.
I can't talk about the plot to much in this review because, as you would expect from a spy action thriller if I did I would be spoiling too much. There is also the major problem that a lot of this film follows on from the preceding films, meaning that I wouldn't be able to tell you what the fuck was going on sometimes even if I wanted to. So, all I'll say here is that the plot is that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) are attempting to retrieve three balls of plutonium from a terrorist group known as the Apostles who plan to do three simultaneous nuclear explosions across the world. I won't say any more than this. I have, in trying to describe the plot, mentioned the biggest problem I found with the film, that being that the plot does continue from the prior films and so there were character relationships and plot points that I just didn't have any kind off reference for. This mean that there were a couple of times during the film where I wasn't invested in the emotion of a scene or, even worse, I didn't particularly know what was going on and why characters had certain motivations. This is, of course, not the fault of the film but of my own for not seeing the other films, and so you may be wondering why I am even bringing it up in the first place? Well, I bring it up because it does not rely take away from the film at all, both in a positive and a negative way. The negative side of this does mean that the story is not the greatest. It is a similar story that has been told by Hollywood a million times and does not take any real chances. The positive side of this means that a newcomer to the series, like me, can watch this film and not feel lost, mainly because the film is not story focused. It is action focused. And holy shit is it action focused. SML
The action in this film is incredible, mainly because it is almost all practical. The film is 2 and a half hours long, and 2 hours of that is taken up by action, and it is never boring. Every sequence is choreographed and shot brilliantly. unlike a lot of action scenes in modern films you always know what’s going on, you never got lost in the scene and start questioning who is where and what everyone is doing. The best action sequence is near the beginning of the film where Ethan Hunt and CIA spy August Walker (Henry Cavill) go to a party in Paris to find a man named Lark (Liang Yang) who they believe to be a member of the Apostles. This whole sequence is beautifully shot, even before the fight scene. The set design is exquisite, and the lighting is also superb in the scene and it is the best-looking part of a very good-looking film. The fight scene is one of the best I’ve seen in recent memory and is reminiscent of the bathroom fight scene in Casino Royale (2006) without being as brutal as that. The bathroom is completely white, and the characters wear black or dark greys, which leads to a brilliant contrast of colour that adds to the visual look of the scene. The sound design also adds so much. There is no music overlaying the action, giving every physical action more weight and making the scene more brutal. Every actor does their job brilliantly in this scene. Tom Cruise is great as always (there is a reason he has had such an incredible and long-lasting career) but I was very impressed with Henry Cavill who I was not expecting anything from, but who was very, very good throughout the film but excels in this scene in particular. The action never really reaches these hates again in the rest of the film, but that does not mean they are not equally thrilling and well done.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a film that if you are on the fence on seeing definitely go and see it in the cinema, don’t wait to watch it at home as you will not have as good an experience as you would in a cinema. The big screen lends itself to a film like this. The scope of the action sequences mean that the surround sound and big screen really give a lot. It is a great film, as you can probably tell from the rest of this review, but it is also a film that I don't really see myself going back to. The action scenes are incredible, but the lack of a memorable and interesting story mean that there is not much to gain from the film other than some fantastic action, but this does not make the film particularly rewatchable. So, like I said, if you have the chance see it in the cinema because you will not be disappointed, even if you will not walk out thinking you have seen an action magnum opus.