5/10
Against current popular opinion, I have to say that Mission Impossible: Fallout didn’t cut the mustard for me. What’s being slated as one of the best action films in recent years, feels more like an overhyped and uninspiring film in my opinion. I don’t doubt the action sequences were executed very well but the story that comes with it doesn’t justify the price of admission.
For all its efforts in setting up fantastic moments of action, the time put into developing an interesting plot appears to be missing. Without substance to compliment set pieces, Mission Impossible: Fallout is a wasted opportunity and could have been so much more. In between these scenes of action, I found myself being bored and unentertained with the same old drivel that follows typical spy driven action films. Antagonist threatens to cause global chaos; team faces the pressure of preventing this whilst under government scrutiny; protagonists don’t know who to trust, and ya-da-ya-da-ya-da you have your film.
This disappointed me given I enjoyed Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which was a film that although followed the same structure I just outlined, it at least blended these great action set pieces with an interesting array of characters and even moments of humor. Which didn’t seem to be the case for the latest as rarely were there any glimpses of the same wit or fun engagement between the characters this time around.
Tom Cruise’s character became more of a stern and stone-faced serious spy, rather than the charismatic and intelligent action hero superstar that I expected him to be. The supporting cast of Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, and Simon Pegg all felt underwritten and were reduced to boring caricatures of their former charismatic selves. Sure, there were a few times when their dynamic worked to produce an interesting moment of entertainment, but amongst the two-and-a-half-hour runtime, these moments were far and few in between.
For me, the only real highlights were the great action scenes which genuinely looked like time and effort was put into setting up and filming. I thought the continuous take that showed Tom Cruise jumping out of an airplane was the best, closely followed by what happens in the finale. Clearly with this being the sixth film in the franchise, there was a desire to up the stakes for what was done previously and for the most part, I’d say they did so successfully. However, I must add that some of these felt out of order and at times were technically out of sync.
The opening scene in my opinion was a terrible choice to kick-off the film as it wasn’t at all exciting to watch. For an action movie, I’m looking forward to seeing the film start off with say a Christopher Nolan opening with what he did for The Dark Knight trilogy or even the great prison escape sequence that began Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
Later on, in the film, there were also a couple of action sequences that ended in a strange way, where the music continued to carry on as we watched the characters disembark from the scene and simply walk away. It felt very off, and I don’t know why they chose to show them, for example, parking and leaving their boat for such a long time whilst music still continued to be played over the top.
Mission Impossible: Fallout is an odd entity. I want to say that you should go see the action sequences from the film because they are well done but at the same time I’m reminded of how uninspiring the whole experience really is. Which is why I recommend giving this a skip and waiting for it come out on Blu-Ray. For what you’re paying for, I don’t believe that you should settle for anything second best when it comes to the story and it’s just too average to sit through. If you must, watch this for the action alone but don’t go in with the expectations that this is the greatest action film of recent years because it’s not. See our reviews for films like The Raid or Shoot Em’ Up instead.