Samantha ChoongMovie Review: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
If you’re looking for fight scenes, car chases and plenty of cool spy tech, you’ll find plenty in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Tom Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt in the fifth instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise. And of course, it contains lots of running, impossible stunts and the iconic M:I theme.
Ethan Hunt, along with his team from the Impossible Mission Force (IMF), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), are on a mission to bring down the Syndicate – a classified project that recruited retired spies from intelligence agencies worldwide
Rogue Nation introduces Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a disavowed British spy who’s acting as a double agent in the Syndicate. Epitomizing “badass female spy”, she holds her own in fights and leaves everyone in the dust, even in a high-speed motorcycle chase.
Between looking amazing in a ball gown and changing into a skin-tight motorcycle suit, Ilsa’s seductive charm is on par with her fighting skills – sans high heels, a sly reference to other pretentious femme fatales who fought in stilettos. Apart from asking Ethan to take her heels off for her once, Ilsa proves that while she’s a damsel and she’s in distress, she doesn’t need a man to get her out of a sticky situation.
From start to finish, the movie is chock full of non-stop actions scenes, from typical combat scenes, to car chases and shoot-outs. And no M:I movie is complete without a crazy stunt from Cruise.
While he was dangling out of the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa in the previous movie this time round we see him hanging off a plane’s door in mid-air and it’s not CGI. Cruise still hasn’t lost his touch as an action star, even at 53.
From the compelling story, to the characters and acting (Renner as Brandt is stich-inducing hilarious), to the effects, stunts and action scenes, Rogue Nation doesn’t disappoint. You’re kept glued to the screen with a number of interesting plot twists and the intense action scenes are extremely well done.
Benji’s role as sidekick and tech whiz is absolutely hilarious to boot. His ineptitude whenever he’s near combat creates plenty of comic relief. When a mission called for some cloak and dagger skulduggery to sneak past security, Benji’s excited cry of: “I get to wear a mask!” is a humorous break from the intensity. But alas, only Ethan got to wear a mask in the end.
Although it has the same premise to all other M:I movies, Rogue Nation differentiates itself by creating a strong female character, and injecting a myriad of funny banter between characters and plenty of plot twists, such as keeping the audience guessing the true intentions of Ilsa.
Interweaved with the suspense, action and M:I has possibly just delivered one of its best films among the 5 movies in the franchise. Rogue Nation is worth the watch.
[xrr rating=4.5/5 display_as=textstars label= “Our Rating:”]
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Information:
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Ving Rhames,
Rating: PG-13 (Violence and brief nudity)
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Genre: Action
Runtime: 132 minutes
Release date: 31 July 2015