Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

So yeah... we live in a world where the fifth Mission Impossible is a better James Bond film than Spectre was... I don't know if I'm proud or disappointed. 

I've been pretty spotty with my reviews of the Mission Impossible franchise. I guess I only feel like the odd numbered ones are worth reviewing for some reason? And while the series has not always been the best, I think its fascinating that its still going and Tom Cruise continues to look as if he hasn't aged a day. Seriously, that guy is literally a vampire sucking the life blood of younger actors to keep his incredible, scientologist, probably still crazy in real life form. 

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation picks up not long after the events of Ghost Protocol. The secret

organization mentioned near the end of Ghost Protocol called "The Syndicate" are back but the only person who realizes this and is working to stop it is Ethan Hunt (played by Tom Cruise). IMF, or the Impossible Mission Force is disbanded and absorbed by the CIA, a question I realize I had and mentioned in my review of the first film. Alec Baldwin plays a CIA official set on ending IMF and bringing Ethan Hunt in from the field. But Hunt is on the warpath to stop the Syndicate and he's willing to be a fugitive to do it.

Hunt is of course assisted by his trusty team that we've seen from previous films. Simon Pegg reprises his role as Benjamin "Benji" Dunn, Ving Rhames returns as Luther, and Jeremy Renner returns as his role from Ghost Protocol, William Brandt. Overall, this team is actually pretty good and worth watching. 

But the real breakout star of the movie is by far Rebecca Ferguson playing Ilsa Faust. Faust works for

the Syndicate, however she proves herself early on to have more to her than that and actually seems to be working with Ethan at times. The entire movie pretty much centers around Ethan trying to find the leader of the Syndicate and going back and forth on whether or not Faust is worth trusting or not.

And yeah, overall, this movie is a much better James Bond movie than Spectre was and that actually really surprised me. I remember when I did my review for the first Mission Impossible, it was right after both the trailer for Spectre and Rogue Nation dropped. I actually thought that Spectre was going to be the better film and that's not what happened at all.

I don't want to give the idea that I didn't like the previous Mission Impossible films. That would be as far from the truth as it could be. The past two were just not my favorite films. I am on record saying that I did not like the third film and the fourth one just isn't really memorable to me, entertaining, but not memorable. Rogue Nation took things to a whole new level and really made the series legitimate in my book. It seems like they will try and continue this series on until at the very least Tom Cruise dies, or they can find somebody as charismatic that could carry on the franchise. 

And I find that latter option to be very difficult because Tom Cruise has created a character in Ethan

Hunt that is just the epitome of Tom Cruise. Again, while Ethan Hunt isn't the most intriguing character, he's just your pretty run of the mill spy and yet Cruise gives him that charisma and grace that makes you root for him the entire time. Consistency in the character has never been a huge issue but it reminds me of earlier Bond films. While the new ones have delved more into the personal history of the character of James Bond films, the earlier films just gave him a personality and let him go on his spying adventures. I get a vibe that that is more what the later Mission Impossible movies are doing, especially Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation. Ethan Hunt is just a badass, there's not much else to him. Once that's established in this movie with him hanging on the outside of a Cargo plane. And when I say him, I actually mean Tom Cruise literally hung onto the side of a cargo plane lifting off, that is one hundred percent real.

But again, I think the real star of this movie was no doubt Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust. And I

think the main reason why this is is because she is basically a female James Bond. It is revealed that she was, at one point, British Intelligence, MI6 which is the exact organization James Bond works for. And since there is a little bit of a Spy v Spy element of this movie, this is probably the closest thing we will get to an Ethan Hunt v James Bond movie we will ever get. The chemistry between Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson is really well done as well and the two really bring something new to the franchise that the other installments have not been able to do.

Aside from the relationship between Faust and Hunt, Ferguson brings her A game with her acting and the struggle she has with this character. I haven't seen Ferguson in a lot of movies but after Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, I'm really looking forward to seeing her in more movies and there is no way that they're not going to include her in future Mission Impossible movies. 

The other performances in the movie are a lot of fun. Simon Pegg does a really good job reprising his

role and he's now become a huge part in the Mission Impossible Franchise. Ving Rhames is always fun and Jeremy Renner does his same Hawkeye bit that works for him. I think the only performance that felt weird was the addition of Alec Baldwin. I didn't hate his performance, I just thought it was a little bit distracting since Baldwin is best known for his comedies and seeing him as a CIA agent just made me think that Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock left show business and joined the CIA in his later years. I think if he returns in the next film I might be able to give him another shot, but for now, I wasn't a huge fan of Baldwin in this role just because it was a little bit distracting. I should probably see it more as Jack Ryan from the Hunt for Red October instead of Jack Donaghy but that's where I'm at right now.

Other things to talk about: the action. The action in this movie is really well done. The stunts, the effects,and the action set pieces are done in a way that actually legitimizes Mission Impossible in a way it took a long time to be legitimized. Its definitely still a PG-13 film but some of the shoot outs were pretty raw and it gave us an opportunity to be impressed with Ethan Hunt the way we've been impressed with Daniel Craig as James Bond.

After rereading my review of Spectre, I realize that these movies are not that much different. The plot is similar in that there is another organization that wants to disband MI6 or IMF and the main character must go on a rogue mission to stop the shady anti-IMF or anti-MI6 organization, The Syndicate v Spectre. Along the way the main character uses his techy friends and bosses that were in the spy organization originally to work secretly with them and they meet a woman whois pretty shady and you don't know which side she's actually on... 

Again, I don't know if I'm more excited that Mission Impossible did a James Bond film better than

James Bond did, or if I'm more disappointed that James Bond didn't do James Bond as well as Mission Impossible did it.

Overall, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a pretty special film. Not only was it a good Mission Impossible film which is a good bar but still pretty low in comparison, but it was a good spy film. It upped the ante, it made characters really likable, and it gave us some good action. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation will probably go down as my favorite spy movie of 2015... as I review in in October of 2016. Definitely watch it if you have the opportunity, its worth checking out.

But those are my thoughts on Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. What did you think? Which did you like better, Spectre or Rogue Nation, was there a better Spy film in 2016 that I may or may not have reviewed and I'm just biased because I just watched this movie? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie reviews and news coming out of this blog. 

I'll leave you with this. Not really sure how I found this or how its relevant, but here's a video of our greatest fictional heroes, including Ethan Hunt, playing Pokemon Go... Enjoy!