I’ll confess: I’ve never seen a Mission Impossible film before. Of course, I’ve heard about the series a lot from plenty of different people, and from what I’ve heard, it seems to be your standard James Bond-ish, secret agent, hardcore action film franchise… and Tom Cruise’s in it. Despite having little to no prior knowledge about any of the previous films, I watched it anyway. So, from the perspective of someone new to the series, how does it hold up?
The plot, typical of most action films, goes as follows: Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team, back in action, must join forces with CIA assassin August Walker (Henry Cavill) to prevent a looming catastrophe, one which will put the whole world in peril. Arms dealer John Lark and a special group of terrorists calling themselves the Apostles plan to use three plutonium cores for a simultaneous nuclear attack on the Vatican, Jerusalem and Mecca, Saudi Arabia. When the three cores go missing, Ethan and his team have to endure a dangerous race against time to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands, and causing mass destruction as we know it.
Although I have not seen the other entries in this franchise, this film was very impressive visually, with plenty of unique and eye-catching shots being used, not only for the action sequences, but for the setting and tone as well. Several scenes (to me, at least) looked like they were shot in a very Blade Runner-esque fashion, with minimalist, one-color backgrounds and a lot of emphasis on the lighting. Of course, the action scenes and fight choreography were incredible: the sequences were never repeated twice, since they take place in many different locations, involve different people, and utilize different weapons. In addition, the choreography itself is top-notch, and the crew made full use of the buildings and architecture around them to create interesting parkour courses. Even though a few of these scenes might come off as cheesy (and unrealistic), you have to remember that these films are all about the action, no matter how stupid it looks.
However, despite how simple as the plot sounds, it isn’t completely without issues. I’m not going to spoil this directly, but a certain revelation in the mid-point of the story came off as incredibly confusing at first, and it wasn’t until much later in the runtime that it started to make sense. Moreover, this film isn’t exactly kind to newcomers, as most of the remarks made towards certain characters seem to indicate that the crew expects its audience to be familiar with these characters already. Weirdly enough, in the occasional scene the crew backpedals on this assumption and there’ll be these scenes of just exposition and info dump on a certain character or characters. However, the occurrence of these moments are minimal, and for the most part I could understand the characters and their motivations just fine.
In conclusion, while Mission Impossible: Fallout isn’t a 100% turn-your-brain-off action film like most summer films of this genre are expected to be, its still very entertaining and enjoyable for anyone who enjoys spy films that are packed to the brim with edge-of-your-seat action. I can safely say that I’m looking forward to the next one and plan on watching more films in this series.
Final score: 8/10
The Art Archive 