Right OK well now that Christmas is over I thought I would do a quick post (or maybe two) just before the end of the year and this post will cover one of the films I got for my Christmas funnily enough! And that film is the latest Mission Impossible film, Rogue Nation.
So let's gear up, get the shades, the gun, the armour vest on and give this un a closer look....
And yes as this is a pretty new film I will definitely issue a SPOILER WARNING AS THERE WILL BE SOME AHEAD!!!
STORY
So the film begins with IMF (Impossible Missions Force) agent, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) trying to uncover the existance of an international criminal consortium called the Syndicate, which the CIA believes does not exist. Ethan is captured by the Syndicate but he manages to escape with the help of Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) a disavowed MI6 agent and Syndicate operative. Meanwhile CIA director, Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) along with IMF field operations director, William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) testify before a senate committee over the effectiveness of the IMF's methods and procedures and how their results have come down to just luck at times rather through solid professionalism. Hunley then suceeds in having the IMF disbanded, prompting Brandt to inform Ethan that he should stay undercover as Hunley will try and capture him. Ethan now follows the only lead he has on the Syndicate, a blonde haired man with glasses, which is later identified as Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) who was a former MI6 agent.
The story then moves forward six months later where Ethan is still a fugitive and he privately enlists the help of his former colleague, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) to attend an opera in Vienna, where Ethan believes that an attempt will be made on the Austrian chancellor at the concert. Ethan manages to stop three assassins at the opera from killing the chancellor who however is then soon killed in a car bomb and Ethan leaves the scene with Faust (who appeared to be one of the assassins) who hints at Lane's plans. Benji then decides to stay and help Ethan as he realises even though if he does it will be tantamount to treason, he thinks Ethan will need his help to track down Lane. The CIA on hearing that Ethan was blamed for the assassination, issue an order to have him killed by the CIA's special activites division. And Brandt secretly calls in the help of Luther Stickler (Ving Rhames) Ethan's former IMF team mate to track down Ethan before the CIA does and they managed to trace Ethan, Benji and Faust to Morocco. Meanwhile Ethan plans to break into a secure building to obtain a list of Syndicate agents, but after they obtain the data, Faust steals it and fless, with Ethan giving chase but after a long chase scene, Even crashes his bike as Faust drives off. And from here Ethan and Benji are reunited with Brandt and Stickler as they aim to try and work out how to stop the Syndicate and find out just what side is Faust really on????
THOUGHTS
Given that the series is now into its fifth film, Rogue Nation fortunately manages to continue to keep the MI franchise going strong as it is another very entertaining entry in the series and it is filled with plenty of great action setpieces and good moments of humour also. Tom Cruise brought onboard writer/director Christopher McQuarrie (who wrote the oscar winning screenplay for The Usual Suspects) to direct the film and together they have created an exciting action packed ride for audiences. Its also worth noting that the film follows the traditional trend of Cruise doing all his own stunts and the film is notable for one such stunt at the start of the film where Ethan Hunt clings onto the side of an airplane as it takes off. Cruise even during the sequence where Ethan has to swim under water and hold his breath for three minutes filmed this whole sequence in one take and Cruise managed to hold his breath for the whole time!
PERFORMANCES
As for the film's performances well they are pretty good starting with Tom Cruise who provides another good turn as Ethan Hunt and this time he adds in a little more humour to his role than before, which is always a good thing. Cruise has some good moments in the film which include his opening scene where Ethan clings onto the outside door of a airplane. And in the scene Ethan pleads with Benji, IMF tech hacker, to open the plane door and in the scene Ethan while clinging onto the side of the plane shouts "Benji, open the door!" and Benji amazed says "Ethan how did you get in the plane?" and Ethan shouts "I'm not in the plane, I'm ON the plane! Open the door!". Another good scene is when Ethan sends opera tickets to Benji who travels to Austria and Ethan contacts Benji remotely. And Ethan insists that they keep a low profile in their hunt on the Syndicate and he says to Benji "Beni we are trying to keep a low profile remember. If you want drama, go to the opera" and after Benji enters the opera house we see that Ethan is above and he says from afar to Benji "Nice tux by the way!".
Then there is the scene where Ethan prevents the assassination attempt of the Austrian chancellor at the opera and he exits the opera house with Faust saying "You wanna find an exit with me?" and go up on the rooftops. And in the scene they use an overhead light cable as a zip line but the post holding barely holds their weight and as they land it breaks shortly after leaving Ethan with a surprised look. Then there is the scene where Ethan shows Benji a list of possible Syndicate members and how he only had one link which was the man he had killed at the opera who was listed as presumed dead. And as Benji says "Let me guess. Presumed dead?" Ethan says "Well tonight, I just made it official".
Another good scene is where Ethan goes underwater to access a security portal and swap ID cards but he has to hold his breath for three minutes and he ends up nearly drowning as a result but is resuscitated by Faust who does a runner. And Ethan despite having nearly died, when revived he chases after her in a car! And lastly there is the scene where (SPOILER!!!) Ethan poses as the MI6 director, Attlee (Simon McBurney) as he captures the Prime Minister and as he reveals himself by removing his face mask of Attlee he says to the CIA director Hunley who is with them "Desparate times, desparate measures, sir!".
Rebecca Ferguson is also pretty good in her role as the disavowed MI6 agent, Ilsa Faust and she manages to give her role a rough sexy quality as she proves to be a woman you do not mess with and she appears to have a thing for Ethan although in the end nothing really romantic happens between them (sorry SPOILER!!). I don't really much dialogue to quote for her so I will just leave it at that (sorry Rebecca!).
Simon Pegg is great again in his role as Benji Dunn, the IMF tech field agent who helps Ethan and he basically provides the film's comic relief and as such he get's most of the film's best lines. And his good moments include the scene where Ethan after nearly drowning in the tank, chases after Faust and Benji get's in the car with him saying "Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you sure you wanna drive? A minute ago you were dead!". And as Ethan asks in a daze "What are you talking about?" Benji says "This isn't going to end well!". And then in the chase scene following that, Ethan's car flies through the air and he asks Benji "You have your seatbelt on?" and a bemused Benji shouts "You're asking me that NOW?!". And in the aftermath of the chase and when Ethan and Benji are reunited with Brandt and Stickler and Faust fleed with a memory stick containing the secure data on the Syndicate, Ethan asks Benji "Please tell me you made a second copy of that data" and Benji looks almost insulted and says "Of course I made a second copy of it!" holding up his own memory stick.
Jeremy Renner also reprises his role from Ghost Protocol very well again as he plays Brandt, who ends up helping Ethan after IMF are disbanded and Ethan is a fugitive from the CIA. Renner has some fun moments in the film as well that include the scene where he argues with Stickler over their choice of vehicle, a 4x4 car when they struggle to keep up with Ethan who chases after Ilsa. And in the scene Brandt moans "Aw, c'mon! It's a high-speed chase and you just had to bring a four-wheels to it!" and Stickler moans back "YOU bought the car!" and Brandt whines again "Look at it! Look how slow you are!".
Sean Harris is also quite effective as the film's main villain, Solomon Lane, and he manages to make him quite a creepy character who will stop at nothing to change the world and bow to the Syndicate's demands. Lane does a play on the words of the IMF when given their operatives missions by saying things to Ethan such as " I have a job for you, Ethan, and for the sake of your friend you will do it. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to bring me the unlocked disk by midnight tonight. Now say the words, please". And Ethan says "I accept" and Lane says "Yes, I knew you would".
Alec Baldwin who is usually reliable in any film does pretty well also as the CIA director, Alan Hunley who has the IMF disbanded and is on the hunt for Ethan (if your pardon the pun!). Baldwin also has some good moments and I will mention just the one scene where he warns the British prime minister (played by Tom Hollander) of Hunt who plans (SPOILER!!!) to kidnap him. And Hunley says to the Prime Minister "Hunt is uniquely trained and highly motivated - a specialist without equal - immune to any countermeasures. There is no secret he cannot extract, no security he cannot breach, no person he cannot become. He has most likely anticipated this very conversation and is waiting to strike in whatever direction we move. Sir, Hunt is the living manifestation of destiny - and he has made you his mission".
And lastly Ving Rhames does a fine job in reprising his role as Luther Stickell and he enjoys some amusing moments with Renner as Stickler and Brandt track down Ethan and soon help him with his mission to take down Lane. Rhames has some good moments in the film aswell such as when Stickell first meets Brandt and he warns him about whether he can trust him or not "You gotta understand one thing, man. Ethan is my friend. And if I'll have a SECOND of doubt whose side you're on... " and Brandt gives himself a second to digest Luther's words and nervously says "I believe you".
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the direction, Christopher McQuarrie has done an excellent job here with Rogue Nation and even though this was only his third directorial film he seems right at home in directing action films and proves to be more than capable at handling the film's exciting action scenes. McQuarrie also wrote the film's screenplay and he does a fine job at that aswell as you would expect from the guy who wrote The Usual Suspects. McQuarrie also previously worked with Cruise on the action thriller, Jack Reacher so obviously this proved to be a good collaboration.
As for the music it features a pretty decent score by Joe Kramer who maintains the use of the Mission Impossible theme and incorporates his own themes. Kramer also worked on McQuarrie's previous films, The Way of the Gun and Jack Reacher. And while its not a memorable score as such it fits the film well enough and does its job even though I have to say that his constant use of the Mission Impossible does kind of grate after a while as it appears to be obligatory that they always have to overuse it in the franchise!
FLAWS
As for the Rogue Nation's flaws.....well it has the odd one or two and to start off the problem with the film is more to do with the series itself in that it has difficulty in moving away from the similar cliches of the previous films. As an example the IMF is yet again brought under threat by the American authorities as they are disbanded by the CIA and in Ghost Protocol a similar thing happened where the IMF were disavowed by invoking the black op "Ghost protocol". Its like Cruise enjoys recycling the theme of IMF being a rogue agency who are brought into disrepute despite their best efforts. However by the end of the film you are confident that the IMF will be put to rights and recognised as a valuable agency.
I also felt even though apparently Tom Cruise managed to hold his breath under water in the scene where he swims underneath the security building to disable the security systems, it still seems a bit far fetched that Ethan himself would possibly be able to hold his breath that long as he even appears daunted by the situation to do it as it looks like it something he had never done before. But hey this is Mission Impossible after all! And even after Ilsa saves Ethan from being drowned and revives him and she flees the scene with the security data, he still manages to chase after her in a high speed chase with little ill effects despite the fact he nearly died!
Another issue lies with the improbability of Ethan and Benji being able to survive their car crash after they unsuccessfully chase down Ilsa after she does a runner. And in the scene the car takes a massive tumble and ends upside down yet somehow these guys still manage to walk away from the wreck with little scars or any real damage! But I'd be almost certain that they would be dead for sure in real life.
And lastly it also has to be said that the series starts to self parody its own caption "your mission should you choose to accept it" so much that they decide even have the baddies say it in this film now as well! And that is one of the thing that proves a bit annoying about Lane, who even says it to Ethan when he calls him later on near the end of the film (ANOTHER SPOILER!!!) when he demands that Ethan give him the security information in exchange for Benji, who Lane has captured and wired up with explosives. But you just think why couldn't just say to him "bring me the stick or I'll blow Benji up" and keep it simple, but I guess they just want to show the villain's eccentricity.
So that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sump Rogue Nation is a very worthy addition to the Mission Impossible franchise and it has some great action scenes in it as well as some good performances from the cast and Tom Cruise manages to add a little more humour to Ethan this time round than before, which is always a good thing to add a character.
And that's it for now and I think I will try and squeeze in one more post just before the end of the year.
So until then its bye the now!
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