Review: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★½

Oh sure, you don’t like Tom Cruise. At least not since he jumped up and down on Oprah’s couch proclaiming his love for his now ex-wife. I’ve heard that sentiment all too often from a vast number of people. People loved 1980s Tom Cruise. They loved him in “Jerry Maguire.” And “Minority Report” was pretty awesome too, right? But being a couch-jumping Scientologist is too much for some folks I guess. You know that happened, like, ten years ago, right? And over the last several years, Cruise’s movies have been pretty great. Didn’t see “Edge of Tomorrow?” Please, you need to see that movie. And “Oblivion” was great too.

Then there’s his “Mission: Impossible” franchise. The third and fourth installments came out post-Oprah incident, which I found to be very enjoyable, especially the fourth film “Ghost Protocol.” The franchise generates enough money to keep warranting sequels, but as long as they’re good who cares? “Mission: Impossible – Rouge Nation” is the latest installment and might be the most adrenaline pumping adventure Cruise’s Ethan Hunt has embarked upon yet.

A terrorist organization known only as The Syndicate has identified Ethan Hunt after he rips off their attempt to smuggle some radioactive weaponry. He’s kidnapped, but subsequently broken out by Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) who may or may not be an undercover British operative. Meanwhile back home, the CIA lead by Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) has disbanded the IMF and is on the lookout for Hunt. Therefore, Hunt, Faust, Brandt (Jeremy Renner), Benji (Simon Pegg), and Luther (Ving Rhames) must all work out of sight of the CIA in order to bring this Syndicate down.

As far as “Mission: Impossible” plots go, “Rouge Nation” is pretty straightforward and easy to follow. You’re not sitting there scratching your head trying to figure out what the heck just happened. You’re here to see high-octane action pieces tied together with a cohesive narrative, and that’s exactly what you get. There’s just enough plot to move everything along from one big action sequence to the next without ever becoming so bogged down by mind numbing plot details. This has become an ever-prevalent problem plaguing so many movies. The story is important, yes, but it doesn’t have to be smothered with so much plot that it becomes a boring mess.

“Rogue Nation” is far from this. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar-winning screenwriter of “The Usual Suspects”) understands that pace is incredibly important in movie such a this and does his duty as a storyteller by showing us all the pertinent information on screen. He does it like this rather than sitting two or more characters at a table and having them over-explain everything little detail. It’s a relief to see something like this in a summer action blockbuster.

McQuarrie’s his already a proven writer, and now continues to improve of his craft as a director. A lot of talk has already been made about Cruise’s airplane stunt (where he actually hung off the side of a military airplane while it took off) but that’s the first stunt we see in the film. From there, it only gets better. Each of these “Mission: Impossible” films has a signature stunt, but there are several different pieces in here that are spectacular.

I won’t go into any details about them, because that would just spoil the surprise, but one of them does involve a high-speed chase. It’s probably one of the best chase scenes we’ve seen (other than the entirety of “Mad Max: Fury Road”) in several years. Most of that can be attributed the stunt driving and the utilization of practical effects rather than CGI. The camera work and editing are pretty sensational too. It’s cut in rapid form, but it’s not overkill. The sequences still make sense. You can clearly differentiate everything that’s happening. These types of scenes don’t happen by accident; they’re carefully crafted from pre-production all the way through the end. When filmmakers, such as McQuarrie, use their heads about what they want everything to look like, that’s when these types of scenes end up being memorable.

Ultimately, “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” is very memorable. From the action scenes to the stellar performances by the entire cast, this film is absolutely one of the most enjoyable movies of the summer. Those who haven’t seen any of the previous films will still be able to enjoy this since these films all seem to stand very well on their own. In an era of film where we’re treated to far too many franchise, Cruise seems to know exactly what he needs to do to position “Mission: Impossible” in a class all of its own.

One more thing: the worst thing action movies can do is open up with a bore. “The Avengers” suffered this issue, opening with walking and talking down hallways about all sorts of exposition. “Age of Ultron” wasn’t much better. It did open with a big action scene, but it was almost entirely CGI and not in a very unique setting. “Rogue Nation” opens with its star hanging off the side of an airplane with no use of green screens and computers. Let’s see Downey, Jr. do that. Love him or hate him, Tom Cruise and this franchise are setting the bar high for everyone else.

Review: Edge of Tomorrow

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★

Love him or hate him for what he does off the screen, Tom Cruise has actually been really solid over the last few years of his career. Film like “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol” and “Oblivion” were really good movies and Cruise never looked like he was struggling to remake a tainted image. It’s almost like he didn’t even care people hated him; he was going to make the movies he wanted to do. Which is good for us because he’s been on a roll lately. Cruise’s latest film is “Edge of Tomorrow,” and it is another fine piece of work from the veteran action star.

Cruise plays Major William Cage, a PR officer for the US Army and spokesman for the United Defense Forces (UDF) at a time when the world is at war with an alien force. UDF General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson) orders Cage to cover the European invasion on the French beaches in person. Cage objects and attempts to blackmail Brigham. The next thing he knows, he’s waking up at a Forward Operating Base with orders to deploy and fight the next morning.

No one, including Master Sergeant Farrell (Bill Paxton), believes Cage to be an officer. The next day, Cage is suited up in a giant exoskeleton combat suit and dropped onto the beach with the rest of the UDF forces. Unfortunately, the invasion is a disaster and everyone, including Cage, dies. Only instead of dying, Cage wakes up back at the FOB the previous day. Once again, he’s suited up and dropped into action. He dies, and wakes up in the same spot yet again.

He continues to participate in the invasion, remembering different ways to stay alive each time. On one occasion he catches the eye of Rita Vrataski (Emil Blunt). She’s in awe of his ability to see things before they happen and instructs Cage to come find her when he wakes up after they die. She too was once stuck in a time loop similar to Cage. She thinks she knows why Cage is stuck in it now, and has a plan to use that to their advantage to beat back the alien forces for good.

The one thing “Edge of Tomorrow” kept reminding me of as I watched it was playing a video game. The more and more a person dies in a video game, the better they become the next time. The same happens with Cruise’s character here. That’s part of what makes video games fun and that’s what makes “Edge of Tomorrow” an enormously fun movie going experience.

Director Doug Liman –who hasn’t done much high concept action work since he directed “The Bourne Identity” or “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” – takes control of the complicated storyline and turns it into a movie that is never too difficult to follow. And that’s a really good thing considering the screenplay comes from frequent Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie (“The Usual Suspects”) who is known for wrapping his stories up so tight that they usually require a second viewing. “Edge of Tomorrow” never feels like it’s moving too fast for anyone to keep up.

Cruise carries the film and proves he’s still a viable action star for Hollywood movies. In a time where people still are distracted by the actions of his personal life, he’s still able to turn out the types of movies people used to expect from him on a yearly basis. The script and the film don’t really give a whole lot of character development for Cruise to work with, but he is such a solid actor that he’s still able to earn your empathy. The same goes for Blunt. Like, she’s not given much to work with in terms of character but we still end up finding rooting interest.

Ultimately, this lack of character development in the script helps “Edge of Tomorrow” become a better film. There are no slow points in this movie whatsoever. Once the action picks up, it doesn’t let go. The film holds your interest for its entire duration never feeling like it’s trying to cram in unnecessary subplots to stretch it out to two hours. This is a very engaging and captivating movie that will surely go down as one of the summer’s best blockbusters.