...Is it really?
If there's one thing a Mission: Impossible film can always be relied on for, it's that Tom Cruise is ever so faithfully devoted a performer. He's become a great anchor for these films, powering the series' sense of intensity with his aggression, but showcasing some greater underlying vulnerability to his character. Simply put, Ethan is often categorized as a man too close for his own good, his friendships tending to make him forsake his main goal on the field, even though that is the IMF's only specific purpose with little room for friendships. It becomes a question of if Ethan can even carry out his missions if he can be so easily compromised, or even worse if he becomes too trusting, as has been the case when he's been betrayed on numerous occasions.
But furthermore, it's thanks to Tom Cruise's adrenaline-junkie attitude that these movies can be as enthralling as they are. Progressively the films have relied more upon practical effects and real in-camera daredevilry, between the Burj Khalifa and clinging to a cargo plane. He's a true showman who's all about giving the audience a genuine thrill, with stunts like a high-altitude sky-dive and a rooftop sprint where he becomes a pure Evel Knievel, and are bolstered by their insane construction.
But it's not simply Cruise, as tagging along him are an assembly of both new and old faces. Rebecca Ferguson returns as MI6 spy Ilsa Faust, here linked to Ethan's case through the mutual interest in Soloman Lane, reprised by Sean Harris. She was a great counterpoint to Ethan in Rogue Nation, a shady shadow playing both sides to achieve her end goals, and here she returns as a direct opposition to him. The film wrings some strong intrigue out of seeing the two played against each other, before eventually forming a truce, and taking on the last big set-piece together. But as committed as Ferguson is, there's just no tension felt between their earlier segments, but even if there were it's so hastily concluded that it almost feels like we're missing scenes.
Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames also return, but while Rhames is reliably strong in the part, Pegg feels like he's running through the motions, becoming a pawn to progress the plot and little room left for character growth (it certainly doesn't help that his humor is slashed). Same goes for Alec Baldwin as returning IMF secretary Hunley, who doesn't have nearly the room needed to showcase his intensity, due in no small part that it almost feels like this material were written for Jeremy Renner's oddly absent Brandt.
Making up for that is Henry Cavill, playing CIA agent and mission chaperone August Walker. Unlike Ethan, Walker doesn't fool himself into thinking he can be the man who can save everyone, a noble but almost impossible stance. He's much more of a fully-refined agent than Ethan, a man who understands that casualties will inevitably be part of the game, who's prepared to accept it and keep his eye on the mission. Walker is also one very paranoid of Ethan's decisions, skeptical of his baggage where Walker chooses to have none, and this conflict of viewpoints becomes a very heated talking point for the two, with Cavill giving his all to the brutal character.
But solid as the players are, the script by McQuarrie doesn't offer them anything great. It's often joked that nobody cares about plots in action movies, but that seems to be the case here. Fallout is quite a convoluted movie, with McQuarrie taking direct influence from Chris Nolan in many regards, especially in the interweaving of various threads and playing with time. But while he may have nailed emulating Nolan's visual stylistics, the scripting is littered with a heavy reliance on tiny, but constant convenience, with characters performing actions and laying out hypotheticals for seemingly no reason at all, only giving the added illusion of importance to the narrative. There's one scene where someone contemplates shooting Ethan and doesn't, because "there's a reason to leave you alive." More like we want to generate suspense, but we've hit a cul de sac trying to make that happen. That's only one example of how this movie places priority on progression over logic, as they constantly rear their head all the way through, a far cry from Ghost Protocol's simplistic fun, and Rogue Nation's compelling leanness.
And I don't think the action really excuses it either. The production quality is top-notch, and I especially liked the fight choreography, especially a Cruise/Cavill tag team brawl with a person of interest in a restroom. But while Cruise's spectacular feats are powerful stuff, they're somewhat marred by being saturated by CGI enhancements, and a disappointing amount of cutting and unsatisfactory camera angles at points. But this movie picks up significantly in the last act, where all parties are caught in a cross-cutting climax, including Ethan giving chase in the cockpit of a helicopter. This last thirty minutes is genuinely breathtaking, and a serious contender for action set-piece of the decade loaded with the great Cruise stunts and intense in-camera precision we've come to love the series for, especially with the knowledge of how Cruise learned to fly this behemoth and perform its dangerous rolls. But even the more intimate showdowns on his teammates prove to be suspenseful and engaging, and if the rest of the movie had been able to capture that same feeling of intimacy and scale, I'd probably be a lot kinder to this movie.
As the tape self-destructs, I came away having fun with the film as I always do with Mission: Impossible, but so many of its hiccups simply frustrated me, and even the spectacle on the screen can't mask it for me. Like The Raid (which this is infinitely better than), it doesn't matter to me how flashy the action is, if there's no real reason to gravitate to it. The convolutions sadly pile up, and in an attempt to outsmart the audience, it feels like the filmmakers have just facilitated explanations on the spot. So I can't agree with the notion of this being an all time great, but it does deliver on the entertainment I expect from a movie like this.
End of transmission.
*** / *****
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