For me the Mission Impossible film series suffers in the story telling department. The films reek of self-aggrandizement. Aging movie star Tom Cruise saw reviving an old TV series into a vehicle for himself. The first film egregiously kills off pretty much the entire cast in the first moments so he can be the star of the show. The second and third films take his role and puts him in another cookie cutter adventure barely connected to the last. It always felt like the stories didn't mean anything. That there was no character development. Like it was all just serving the stunt sequences each film was putting forward.
I felt some of this changed with Ghost Protocol, a film which seemed rebuild a team approach but seemed to be starting to have consequences to what happened before, started to build up characters into people we could care about and follow. I still feel the series drops the ball somewhat in that. I've never bought Hunt's tragedy (only he can save the world so he has to be parted from his blander than bland wife who has no chemistry with him what so ever) but at least it makes this about something more than just what is the next amazing stunts.
So while I can enjoy all the stunts and spectacle which is Fallout, I just wish I could care more about the characters. While I enjoy Pegg's wisecracks, the rest of the team has always offered very little personality. Rhames isn't anything more than a lovable giant. Rebecca Ferguson is the answer to how can we find a love interest even blander than the last (where is Paula Patton when you need her?). When it comes to story and character, Fallout, like its predecessors comes up short.
So yes I had a fun time watching Cruise show the world what a man he is by attempting all these remarkable stunts. And I dug the stylish vibe director McQuarrie imbued into the scenes. While no Skyfall, Fallout does offer some mighty lush visuals. But I would have gotten so much more out of it if I could get invested in this ongoing story. The film climaxes in a moment which it doesn't earn. It builds to this reunion which is supposed to make us feel the stakes rise but for me it all felt so false I couldn't care about that and just wanted to see the action.
And you'll see the "twist" coming a mile away. The mysterious villain's identity is telegraphed early in the film and the whole reveal was clumsily handled. This doesn't sink the film. Perhaps McQuarrie knew that plot point wasn't what the film was hanging on and therefore didn't attempt to make it anything more than it was. But if you can't spot the bad guy in the first act you haven't seen enough of these films.
Oh and another critique. I hate it when a movie sets a timer, and then clearly takes way longer than the set amount of time to resolve the action. In this case we get 15 minutes on a countdown before a nuclear bomb is going to go off. 30 minutes later the timer is still counting down... I mean if you are going to create tension with a ticking clock then don't stretch out time. It has the opposite effect on the audience who quickly come to see the characters have all the time they need to solve it cause the ticking clock means nothing.
And that is a good analogy for why the MI movies remain lower on my list of films to be excited about. They just don't offer me enough meaning to be worked up about while I'm enjoying the action. For what it is Fallout is a strong entry in a rather weak series.
Mission Impossible Fallout
Starring: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Cavil, Sean Harris, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett
Writer/Director: Christopher McQuarrie
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