(phtoto courtesy of comingsoon.net)
I watched Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (MIRN) a couple
weeks ago but did not bother to comment for two reasons. The first reason is
that I was not impressed with the previous entry in the series Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The
second reason is that I watched Rogue
Nation while I was a bit sleepy. I was in and out of sleep while watching
this film in the cinema despite the loud explosions, crashes, fights and the
reactions of various members of the audience. My sleepiness had nothing to do
with the film because I was tired going into the film. Anyways the film is now
a commercial and critical success and so my views won’t count for much (as if
they ever did). I did watch enough of this film to know that it was an
improvement on Ghost Protocol
because it was more intricate and does raise some questions about the IMF
organization.
The film is about a mysterious terrorist group called the
Syndicate that seek to disrupt the world order and create a new one with
targeted terrorist attacks. The IMF has been absorbed into the operations of
the CIA and is now defunct with its members scattered throughout the bureaucracy
or left to their own devices. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is now on the run but
does use his resources to try to track down the syndicate and its leader and he
is aided, somewhat by a beautiful woman, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), whose
intentions are never quite clear particularly as it is revealed that she is a British
spy working undercover with the syndicate.
Positives
The primary positive of this film is that it is an
improvement on Ghost Protocol. This
is because the film is more intricate particularly when you’re dealing with so
many mysterious figures. There are a lot of questions concerning the actual
existence of the Syndicate. Normally when you do encounter them you end up dead
or trapped. It adds a air of mystery particularly with the introduction of Ilsa
whose motives aren’t always that clear.
I like that the very nature of the IMF is questioned in this
film. I am still not convinced by the specialty of the organization itself but
it does lay the groundwork for the impossible missions led by Ethan Hunt. This
is why I was interested when the nature of the organization was questioned. Why
was it not a branch of the CIA in the first place and why is it reliant on such
a small crew of individuals? Obviously a large part of this film is about the
IMF proving its credibility or salvaging its reputation. In order to do this it
must expose the Syndicate and nab its leader. Easier said than done.
The action sequences kept me awake at times while I was nodding
off and so they were pretty good. The sequences were still a bit generic and
there were no genuine thrills for me. Nothing spectacular. That moment when Tom
Cruise was hanging outside of an airplane as it is taking off was the closest
the film came to generating a genuine thrill for me. It was a let down because
it was designed to be a poster image. What follows after he hangs outside the
door was pretty ordinary but they clearly wanted to start with a bang.
Rebecca Ferguson is a beauty and brings a genuine allure or star
quality as the leading female performer in the film.
Negatives
The superficiality of the IMF unit was exposed in this film
and this begs the question as to why it is given this grand title yet is so
easily disbanded. Is it an organization or just a group of individuals? The film
does raise some issues regarding the trail of destruction left by the IMF but
does not address how it is structured or its operational capacity. It seems
like a flimsy organization and the redemption at the end should not have been enough
to redeem it especially as it is so dependent on Ethan Hunt.
There are a lot of intricacies in this film that are
inconsequential such as the role played by Ilsa. While her intentions are not
clear there is no reason why this is so. She just acts sometimes with no
explanation in order to create an unnecessary air of mystery. This is because we don’t get much of an
insight into her character, especially her motivations. There are other instances that are designed
to give the syndicate this mysterious air although when everything is
eventually explained it did not grab me. It seems like just enough for the film
and so everything is easily resolved. It’s business as usual. The syndicate
does provide a certain challenge but Ethan always seems in control and
everything is neatly wrapped up for the next film in the series. Let’s see if
this concept of the rogue nation makes enough money to merit a sequel. This
series just relies on the next impossible mission. There is not much of a connecting thread linking
the many films in the series except impossible missions. If that’s the case then I am justified in
saying that this film is superficial. The story is pretty flimsy. The filmmakers just have to do enough to make
a mission seem impossible. Once the mission is completed then the film has
nothing else to carry it through. The series will run out of gas pretty soon
unless they can introduce some new characters and make them more permanent. A
next generation of IMF stars.
The action sequences were very generic despite the fancy
gadgets. I was not too impressed with the action sequences but they were good
enough.
