CHOOSE TO ACCEPT ABOUT HALF OF IT
Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Fallout
Review by Paul Preston
Fallout has notched the biggest opening weekend of the Mission: Impossible film series so far, and is the second biggest opening for star Tom Cruise. I, for one, and thrilled for him, this guy is the last great movie star. I miss the days when a star would open a movie. Remember when every summer you had a Tom Cruise movie? And a Harrison Ford movie? A Mel Gibson movie? A Tom Hanks movie? A Julia Roberts movie and on and on. The stars have been replaced by franchises, but even though Fallout is clearly the product of a franchise, there’s one guy front and center in the story, in the news and on the TV. This is a Tom Cruise movie, a sure sign that you’re not going to witness an unambitious production.
M:I – Fallout sees Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in the first sequel of the series that picks up two years after the previous film left off – Solomon Lane had been taken into custody, the mysterious Ilsa has earned her freedom and disappears into the night and the IMF has been re-instated. Hunt’s new mission is to find a group of terrorists known as The Apostles, who have possession of a dangerous amount of plutonium, all under the watchful eye of CIA agent August Walker (Henry Cavill).
Fallout delivers huge on the backbone of the franchise – huge action sequences. I recently re-watched Rogue Nation, and if you haven’t in a while, I recommend it. Hunt goes from a tense underwater race against time to a car chase to a motorcycle chase and it’s breathless. Fallout delivers an equally non-stop finale with a helicopter chase and a fist fight that’s all-out bananas. Wonderfully conceived and, like all the action sequences of the last three M:I films, masterfully executed. The franchise, which normally swaps directors with each new film, hung on to Oscar-winner Christopher McQuarrie and his chemistry with Cruise is one of utter confidence. Stunts and gonzo action scenes are delivered with style and bruising authenticity.
Unfortunately, I wish Fallout delivered the consistency of its last two predecessors, Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, when it comes to balancing the great action with a great script. The story of Fallout is compelling: Ilsa returns, Lane ditches the Steve Jobs look for straight homeless psycho and Hunt’s relationship with his own government undergoes its biggest test yet. But the dialogue with which this story is told is so labored it bogs down the fun of all the action.
Like Solo: A Star Wars Story, this movie suffers from an overuse of changing allegiances. When a character is revealed to be an ally, then switches back again and again and yet again, the impact is lost. The characters of Solo and Fallout both spend gobs of time explaining all the various twists and turns in allegiance and who’s working for who to where it becomes boring to watch. There’s a scene in Fallout at The Eiffel Tower between Angela Bassett and Cavill where they go over a whole bunch of things we’ve already seen in the movie and repeat a whole bunch of ways all the characters are feeling that we already know to where the scene is completely unnecessary. Bassett’s character is especially pointless in this movie, and she makes a move to apprehend criminals late in the film that is seriously misguided. McQuarrie gives us a plot that’ll pretty much unfold on its own, it’s just mucked up with ‘splaining.
There’s also a melodrama to this movie that previous entries avoided. A couple examples include a death scene that’s on the verge of being overacted and Ving Rhames delivering a monologue that feels like a monologue someone would make in a scene if you asked two improvisers to act out an action movie’s serious moments. Not helping is the score, never taking a break and often underscoring quiet moments where maybe it could…take a break? Joe Kraemer and Michael Giacchino did finer work in the previous entries.
In the middle of it all, Cruise is FLOWING. Ethan Hunt is a better fit on him by now than Nick Morton of The Mummy ever would be. That was NOT a Tom Cruise movie. There’s even a scene in Fallout where the movie doubles-down on Tom Cruise RUNNING. We already know that there’s nothing better than Tom Cruise running, so this film said, “OK, how about fifteen minutes of that.” It’s great.
But based on the heights to which this franchise has evolved, I’ll take a Mission: Impossible movie over most things, and this one’s welcome. It’s gonna be a tough re-watch, ‘cause of the trudging dialogue, but some of the bigger action sequences may require a second look.
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Release Date: July 27, 2018
Run Time: 147 Minutes
Rated: PG-13
Country: USA
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
