Super Agent

Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation

How do I really segway into this review with a franchise that is one of the most popular and successful of all time and stars one of the biggest movie actors to ever live? I don’t know either, but I am going to try. Based on a 60s television show and developed for the big screen to give competition to the James Bond films, Mission: Impossible has produced lots of thrills, action, and even a little humor to the spy genre. After the revival of the franchise with Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, the series is back this year with a brand new entry and a couple familiar faces in Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation.

After two years on the trail for the evil organization known as the Syndicate, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) believes that he is closer than ever to finding out whom they are and who is their leader. But before Hunt can make any real push to find them, CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin Aloha) has convinced a Congressional committee to dissolve IMF and fold all of their agents into the CIA. Hunley, never believing the rumors about the Syndicate being real, orders Hunt to report back to Langley for a new assignment. However, Hunt ignores the order and becomes an international fugitive using all of his resources to track down the Syndicate.

Rogue Nation is definitely one of the better entries into the Mission: Impossible franchise, though I don’t think that it has what it takes to dethrone Ghost Protocol. The action scenes were fantastic and the little bit of humor sprinkled in was very amusing. There were more things good about this movie than bad, but I just felt that that Rogue Nation felt a lot like Protocol. I can see how this can be true due to Rogue Nation being an almost direct sequel to Ghost Protocol, but I thought that there would be something a little different.

Cruise was awesome as always when playing Ethan Hunt, so there isn’t really anything different about this go around. I did like the fact that Simon Pegg (Star Trek), who plays Benji Dunn, is being used a little bit more in this film. Pegg’s screen presence in this franchise as increased over the past two films, but here we get to see a little bit more emotion from his character. Baldwin, though not seen very much, was a good addition to the series as the determined CIA director. What I enjoyed the most out of this cast was Sean Harris (’71) who plays the diabolical Solomon Lane. Not since Jon Voight (villain of the first film) has Mission: Impossible had a worthy opponent to Ethan Hunt. Harris is creepy and cruel in a very good way. Harris needs to play more bad guys as he has the voice and aura around him to pull off the meanness of a villain. The only parts of this cast I did not like was Jeremy Renner (Ghost Protocol) and Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible) who play William Brandt and Luther Stickell respectively. Let me say that it wasn’t because they were bad or anything like that; it is because they were so under used. Renner I can understand due to his stint in this year’s Avengers, but I maybe they could have replaced him with someone more useful. Rhames on the other hand, I didn’t understand why he was under used. Rhames is in the beginning and then the last act. Rhames is nowhere to be found during the middle of this movie and that sucks because he is such a great actor/character.

Screenwriter/director Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) takes his turn with Rogue Nation. McQuarrie does a marvelous job of bringing the film series one step closer to the TV series. The director also tries to bring a lot of elements of the first film that worked into this movie. However, McQuarrie is such a great writer and decent director; I thought that he had a prime opportunity to make his stamp on this franchise. He is one of the masterminds behind great films like The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, and Edge of Tomorrow, so I know he can create something unique for super-agent Ethan Hunt. Just disappointing that McQuarrie did just enough to produce a good movie, just not a memorable one.

For fans of the franchise, Rogue Nation is worth seeing on the big screen. Just don’t expect much out of the fan favorite characters or much anything different from the last entry of the series. Just please remember that even though I said a few negative things, Rogue Nation is the second best entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise. The film was suspenseful and the stunts were magnificent.  I love these movies and I always will, I just hope that this resurgence will continue going upward, not downward.

The Verdict: See in Theatres