Some missions are not a choice.
Mission: Impossible-Fallout is a 2018 spy film directed by Christopher McQuarrie, written by Chrisopher McQuarrie, produced by Skydance Productions, Bad Robot Productions, TC Productions, and Alibaba Productions, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is based on the 1966 TV series, Mission: Impossible. It stars Tom Cruise and Henry Cavill. It was not nominated for any Academy Awards. This is the sixth film in the Mission: Impossible franchise. It was preceded by Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation and will be followed by the untitled Mission: Impossible 7.
"Your mission, should you choose to accept it. I wonder, Ethan, did you ever choose not to?" -Solomon Lane
Plot
After Ethan Hunt learns of a terrorist group called the Apostles, he finds out that there is a plot to launch three simultaneous nuclear attacks. After Ethan loses the weapons, he and his IMF team race against time to stop the cores from falling into the wrong hands.
Positive Aspects
The first thing that I have on this film is the characters. I think that this is the strongest film character-wise. It digs deep into the background of each character, and that really works. Ethan is getting older but still fighting. He is nervous about not killing Solomon Lane, and then realizes that the syndicate is still out there, trying to accomplish their nuclear attacks on the world. I thought that August Walker was a good character. He was kind of a jerk, but he was a good guy...until the very end. Ilsa is still the best character in the series, and she feels even more conflicted in this film. I also liked the addition of Vanessa Kirby's character. She felt like an unsure character that could be good and could be bad.
I was also very happy that they brought Julia Meade back into the series. She was a very important character in Mission: Impossible III, and it was nice to see where she was. I thought that the interaction between her, Ethan, and her husband was great.
The plot for this film makes a lot of sense. I think that they made it very urgent and exciting. Ethan is almost willing to massacre police officers to secure the plutonium cores. Then after he doesn't and allows Solomon Lane to escape, he is confronted by the CIA, who think that he is John Lark, the arms dealer. This is the kind of stuff that I love to see in an intense spy thriller like this.
The acting is good. It isn't fantastic, but it is good. Tom Cruise is still up to the challenge of the films, even in his mid-late 50s. He really plays Ethan well as they are aging together. I am not a big fan of Henry Cavill, but I think that he is actually good in this. He monotonous performance works for August Walker. Not as much Superman, but it works well in this one. Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Rebecca Ferguson are all good. They all deliver just about as much as they have in the other films. Vanessa Kirby is also good. She plays her part in a very suspicious and dangerous way, but she is also charming and seems good, which she is, in the end.
My favorite scene in this film is the Wolf Blitzer scene. It was so funny and clever at the same time, and very vital to the plot. They make it seem sentimental and dark at first, then they reveal that it was all a setup and Benji was actually pretending to be Wolf Blitzer.
I think that this film has the best tension and sense of danger throughout it. Mission: Impossible is not good at killing off characters, but they are actually able to do it in this film. They also make it seem like the plutonium cores have detonated at the end, and there's this quick sense of panic before it is revealed that they didn't blow. It makes the film feel like there are stakes, and it makes the film more exciting than some of the others.
Negative Aspects
The biggest thing that I have on this is the action. The action in this film is incredibly underwhelming. It had a freakin' helicopter fight scene that was ruined for me because it was shot with a different camera than the scene that it was intercut with. It looked like it was shot on a GoPro and made the sequence very distracting.
I also have complained about this through my reviews of the Mission: Impossible films. They did not mention William Brandt at all in this film. His absence was not explained or touched on at all. They have been better at getting characters back, but Brandt was a very important character and seemed like he'd be sticking with the team for a little while, at least.
The last thing is the writing. I think that this has some weird writing. The writing isn't bad, but it definitely isn't good. It feels out of place in the Mission: Impossible films. It seemed prominent with Luther and Benji. They had some abnormal lines that were out of character. It just didn't feel exactly right.
Final Score
Despite some strange writing, a missing character, and disappointing action, this movie has good acting, a great plot, and the IMF characters are at their strongest.
I will give it a Savory rating. Age range is 9+.
SWEET N' SOUR SCALE
Sweet (Great) Savory (Good)
Sour (Bad)
Moldy (Terrible)
"Mission: Impossible-Fallout"
Fun Factor: 8/10
Acting: 7.5/10
Story: 8.5/10
Characters: 7.5/10
Quality: 7.5/10
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
Released on July 27, 2018
Rated PG-13 for moderate action and violence, disturbing themes and images, language
2 hours and 27 minutes
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt
Henry Cavill as August Walker
Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell
Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust
Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn
Sean Harris as Solomon Lane
Angela Bassett as Erika Sloane
Vanessa Kirby as The White Widow
Michelle Monaghan as Julia Meade
Alec Baldwin as Alan Hunley
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