Mission: Impossible-Fallout Continues to be Impossibly Amazing

Welcome fellow reader. What started as a popular TV show from the sixties has evolved into the Tom Cruise spy saga that we all know and somewhat love. Your mission, should you choose to accept, is to watch to all five movies to get caught up for Mission: Impossible-Fallout. If the task proves to be daunting, you may skip only the second film. If it continues to be stressful, at the very least watch the fourth and fifth installment. Good Luck. This message will not self-destruct. Now onto the review....

The First Trilogy from 1996-2006 (above)
The Second Trilogy from 2011-2018 (below)

The Mission: Impossible franchise has come a long way. Can you believe its lasted for 22 years and still going strong? Talk about impossible. Despite the backlash from fans of the TV show, the first Mission: Impossible movie managed to do well with the box-office and critics. The same couldn't be said for Mission: Impossible II and was seen as a step down of its predecessor; marking it the worst entry of the franchise. While Mission: Impossible III managed to patch things up it didn't capture the success of the first film. Just when it looked like the franchise had run its course, Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol was able to breathe new life into the series and got better with Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation. Much of its success is Tom Cruise's amazing dedication in his stunt work; whether climbing the Dubai Tower (the tallest building in the world) or hanging on the side of an airplane as it's taking off.  That is no green screen, computer effect or stunt double but Cruise literally performing these death defying stunts! 

Fun Fact: Tom Cruise broke his leg while doing this jump. 

In what is now the sixth installment, Mission:Impossible-Fallout continues the winning streak, of setting this new MI trilogy better than the first. After a mission gone wrong, a terrorist group is ready to launch three nuclear bombs and Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF (Impossible Mission Force) team are the only ones who can stop them. Along with Cruise, returning cast members include Simon Pegg as the comic relief tech agent Benji, Ving Rhames as computer hacker Luther Sticker (like Cruise, he has appeared in every MI movie), Alec Baldwin as gruff IMF superior Alan Hunley, and Rebecca Ferguson as British Agent Ilsa Faust. New team players consist of the Man of Steel himself Henry Cavil as CIA agent August Walker and Angela Bassett as CIA director Erica Sloane who view the IMF's tactics as unorthodox.

Vanessa Kirby and Henry Cavill making an escape with Tom Cruise.

Christopher McQuarrie who directed Rogue Nation is back again, making him the first filmmaker to helm more than one Mission: Impossible movie. Fallout may not be the best in the MI series but it is definitely one of the best action movies of the summer along with Ant-Man and the Wasp. With every film the action gets better and better. We have the customary Cruise stunt with our main lead doing a literal parachute jump, a high speed chase in the streets Paris, running on the rooftops in London and  dangling on a rope from a helicopter. Talk about commitment!

At age 56, Cruise continues to excel as Ethan Hunt; a role that I would argue is synonymous with Harrison Ford's Indian Jones and Christopher Reeve's Superman. Hunt strives to accomplish the mission at hand, to protect the innocent and defeat those who find human life or any type of morality as trivial. You can knock him down with a car, plane, or bomb but he will still get back up whether broken-boned or out of breath to save the world. If the situation calls to save the world or his friends, he will choose his friends. Some see it as a flaw but as one character comments, it's a strength, and what makes him the best. The team dynamic was a component that was strengthened in this new trilogy as it puts the rest of the cast besides Cruise to shine in the spotlight.

The IMF Team: Benji, Ilsa, Ethan Hunt, and Luther Stickler. 

One thing I like about the MI franchise, as one critic point's out "after two-plus hours of ridiculously entertaining action, the mission actually is accomplished." No sequel-baiting or cliffhangers. The next mission introduces a new villain and catastrophe without rehashing or revisiting anything from the last films. This is Fallout's only downfall. The story recycles couple of plot threads from its predecessors including the return of old antagonist and other parts of the story that get sketchy that looks like it might pull a Spectre in Mission Impossible 7.

Superman and Ethan Hunt taking a crash course

That said, Mission: Impossible-Fallout is worth watching especially for fans who stuck with this franchise for so long. Looking forward to the next mission.

Final Verdict: (A-)