★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Mission: Impossible –
Rogue Nation finds agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his cohorts returning
from another successful operation to find that the IMF has been permanently
dissolved. A terrorist opposition force known as the Syndicate commits to destroying
the remains of the IMF, and Hunt must retain the loyalty of his team and earn
the respect of a mysterious Syndicate infiltrator in order to bring the enemy
down.
This is what the film pretends to be about: what it actually
is constitutes an ever-ridiculous series of action scenes starring Tom Cruise, held
together by the wavering strings of what was once a discernible story. As is
the prevailing problem with many of its contemporaries, Rogue Nation has a plot that twists and turns and dodges around
here, there and everywhere too fast for the audience to get a proper grasp
before throwing them into yet another jaw-dropping feat of danger and death.
What’s weird is that the film-makers clearly know by now
that Cruise is a reliable money-spinner and sheer vehicle of charisma, but
spend most of the film treating Ethan Hunt more like a ragdoll than a
fully-fleshed character. Whatever their faults, previous films in the series
have at least added something to the character and his mythos, but now he’s
just there to be tossed around the various high-octane set pieces that – whilst
deftly entertaining in the moment – never amount to more than elaborate
distractions from the increasingly higgledy-piggledy plot.
The supporting acts offer much more: the dynamic between
Pegg, Rhames and Renner is as fresh and diverting as ever, and I grew a little
soft spot for Alec Baldwin as the CIA chief running around after the bunch like
an exasperated parent trying to rally Haribo-fuelled school-children. But the
true star of the film is up-and-coming Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson as
double-agent Ilsa Faust, a deadly and sleek combo of old school femme fatale
and modern Bond girl. She joins Mad Max’s
Imperator Furiosa on the growing list of badass action heroines of 2015 as
Ethan Hunt’s rival-turned-partner in crime.
For all my complaints about the paper-thin connections
between the set pieces and the narrative, the former are certainly something to
see. The now famous stunt in which Cruise clings to the side of a real plane as it really takes off is marvellous on a sizeable screen, and the
heavily-marketed sequence of underwater chaos manages to swim the distance unscathed
by the slightly wobbly CGI work. These are the sections of the film that really
stand up, and it’s hard not to be massively enthralled as Joe Kramer’s top
notch score gives boisterous, brassy oomph to the proceedings.
Especially considering its place as the fifth instalment of
a franchise, Rogue Nation is certainly
an enlivening blockbuster. But if you’ve been exposed in any way to the
extensive marketing campaign, there’s nothing here to really blow your mind.
With another sequel surely green-lit, Cruise and co.’s next mission to
entertain – should they choose to accept it – may prove to be more than a
little impossible.
