Doctor Sleep (2019) review

There have been countless adaptations of author Stephen King’s works over the years, and yet, amidst all the hits and the misses, there’s one that King has always had mixed feelings about. The film in question is The Shining, the 1980 adaptation of King’s 1977 novel of the same name. Despite attracting generally mixed reviews upon its initial release, the film has gone on to become a staple of the horror genre and one of the many classic outings from legendary director Stanley Kubrick. King, however, wasn’t too pleased with the film due to the many radical changes that Kubrick made to the story, including but not limited to an overall undermining of the main character Jack Torrance’s ‘everyman’ persona in favor of Jack Nicholson’s more unhinged characterization. This then led to King penning the script himself for a more faithful adaptation of the book via a 1997 miniseries, and in 2013, he released a follow-up novel, Doctor Sleep, which continued the story of Danny, the young son of Jack Torrance, as he matures into adulthood. But when it comes to this novel’s new film adaptation, it takes the bold route of trying to combine elements from both Stephen King’s Shining novels and Stanley Kubrick’s iconic yet not quite faithful film adaptation of the 1977 original. This daunting task goes to director Mike Flanagan, who’s become quite a notable horror director these past few years thanks to his work on projects like 2017’s Gerald’s Game (another Stephen King adaptation) and his critically acclaimed TV series adaptation of author Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. And sure enough, Flanagan manages to land another big hit with Doctor Sleep, which aptly succeeds at being a natural follow-up to one of the most iconic horror films ever made without ever feeling like a direct carbon copy of what Stanley Kubrick managed to accomplish.

It has been nearly four decades since young Danny Torrance and his mother Wendy (Alex Essoe) managed to escape the devastation at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado caused by Danny’s father/Wendy’s husband Jack. Since then, Dan (Ewan McGregor) has struggled to cope with all the trauma that he endured from that incident to the point where he’s even fallen victim to the same drinking habits that his father had. In doing so, he’s also attempted to repress the psychic abilities that he’s had since he was a kid, which the late Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly), who also had these abilities, referred to as ‘The Shining’. Dan eventually ends up in the town of Frazier, New Hampshire, where he manages to secure a job as a hospice worker that allows him to use his powers for good. He also ends up meeting a young girl from Anniston, New Hampshire named Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), who’s also revealed to have the Shining. However, in the process, Abra and Dan end up attracting the attention of a cult known as the True Knot, led by the mysterious Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), who feed on the essences of young children who have the Shining to maintain their youthful appearances. And through their initial interactions, Rose realizes that Abra might just be the most powerful psychic child that the True Knot has come across in quite some time. Thus, despite his reluctance to get involved in this situation, Dan teams up with Abra to protect her from the True Knot, and in the process, is even forced to finally start confronting the dark past that has haunted him his entire life.

Now, despite what I said earlier about how the film attempts to combine elements from both Stephen King and Stanley Kubrick’s versions of The Shining, it’s clear from the get-go that this adaptation of Doctor Sleep mainly takes inspiration from the latter. While this isn’t a case where the film just relies solely on Kubrick’s film at the expense of telling its own story, the imagery that Flanagan uses to address Dan Torrance’s past always comes from the 1980 film right down to some very impeccable recreations of its key moments. And while Flanagan doesn’t outright mirror Kubrick’s classic shooting style of long takes and wide shots, he and his long-time cinematographer Michael Fimognari do mimic that method in a few select sequences. In other words, not only does Doctor Sleep benefit from having some phenomenal cinematography, it also legitimately feels like the kind of follow-up that Kubrick would have done if he’d made this. The only major instance where the film’s connections to Kubrick’s Shining start to get a little problematic is its finale which, without spoiling anything, basically ends up becoming one big Shining callback after another. At the same time, though, the ending also allows for some nods to King’s version of The Shining, resulting in a unique hybrid of an adaptation that, at the end of the day, does end up honoring both incarnations of its predecessor in a respectful manner. Plus, even though the film boasts a hefty run-time that nearly rivals It: Chapter Two, its story is always a compelling one even with the slow-burn narrative that it consistently maintains.

Like many Stephen King works, Doctor Sleep is also very much a character-driven story, and in this instance, it all begins (and, in many cases, ends) with Dan Torrance. Stephen King has said that one of the main reasons why he wrote Doctor Sleep was because he was curious about what young Danny from The Shining would be like as an adult. As it turns out, Dan ends up becoming quite the tragic but overall sympathetic figure who’s just trying to move on from his traumatic past, and Ewan McGregor does a phenomenal job conveying all the emotional turmoil that Dan has been dealing with since his time at the Overlook Hotel. Newcomer Kyliegh Curry shows the same brilliant sense of commitment to her role as Abra, who could technically be described as this film’s equivalent of young Danny from The Shining given that both are precocious kids thanks to their Shining abilities. However, Curry does manage to differentiate herself from Danny Lloyd’s performance as Danny in Kubrick’s film in some very distinct ways, whether it’s due to her notably spunkier personality or something as simple as the fact that she’s a teenager whereas Danny was only five during the events of The Shining. Rebecca Ferguson, meanwhile, is terrific as the film’s main antagonist Rose the Hat, who brilliantly blurs the line between being manipulatively charismatic and chillingly menacing. This, in turn, helps to make her cult, the True Knot, a genuinely imposing threat right from the very beginning. And then, to close it all off, there’s some solid supporting turns from the likes of Cliff Curtis as Billy, a friendly Frazier local who ends up tagging along with Dan and Abra on their journey, and Carl Lumbly, who manages to be quite the spot-on successor to the late Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann.

As embarrassing as it might be for me to admit, it wasn’t until recently (e.g. the day before I went to go see this film) when I finally watched The Shining for the first time. As such, my overall thoughts on the film ultimately ended up falling in line with my thoughts towards John Carpenter’s Halloween. In other words, despite having seen it at a point where I’ve already witnessed plenty of films and TV shows that were either heavily inspired by it or have satirized it in some form, I could still appreciate all the masterful filmmaking that went into it. And even though we’re far removed from the time of Stanley Kubrick at this point, Doctor Sleep manages to be a worthy follow-up to the seminal classic that precedes it. Through this film, director Mike Flanagan crafts a highly compelling and character-driven supernatural thriller that thoroughly respects its predecessor while still being able to do its own thing. And while the film’s reliance on the imagery of Kubrick’s film does mean that this technically isn’t a note-for-note 100% faithful adaptation of its source material, its story and character beats end up being more in line with Stephen King’s original vision for The Shining. In other words, the best way to describe this adaptation of Doctor Sleep is that it’s a film that is done in the style of Stanley Kubrick but with Stephen King’s narrative sensibilities. Because of this, the film manages to do what some may have considered utterly impossible by bridging many of the narrative divergences that were caused by what is still quite possibly the most radically different interpretation of a Stephen King story. And while it clearly must’ve been an incredibly daunting task to try and do a follow-up to one of the most iconic horror films of all-time, Mike Flanagan handles all this immense pressure with ease and continues to prove why he’s one of the most revered horror directors as of late.

Rating: 4.5/5

Men in Black: International (2019) review

In 1990, the first installments of a new comic series, The Men in Black, was published by Aircel Comics. Created by writer Lowell Cunningham, the series focused on the titular Men in Black, a secret organization tasked with monitoring extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Soon after the completion of the series’ six-issue run, Aircel would end up getting acquired by Malibu Comics who, in turn, would be acquired by Marvel. And in 1997, the series was adapted to the big screen courtesy of director Barry Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment. Upon its release, the film, which starred Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as Men in Black agents J and K, respectively, was a big critical and financial hit, grossing over $589 million worldwide and earning the legendary Rick Baker his then-fifth Oscar for Best Makeup. The film would then spawn two sequels in 2002 and 2012, and while neither sequel was as well-received as the original, they were still both solid hits at the box-office. And yet, while it seemed like Men in Black 3 would be the final installment of the franchise, it has now come back in the form of a spin-off that isn’t the attempted crossover with the 21 Jump Street franchise that ultimately went nowhere. Instead, it’s a more traditional spin-off that focuses on new characters but is still set in the same universe. This time, directorial duties go to F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton, The Fate of the Furious) while Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson headline the cast in their second big collaboration together after Thompson made a big splash in the MCU as Valkyrie alongside Hemsworth’s Thor in Thor: Ragnarök. And just like in that film, they prove to be quite the dynamic duo despite this film’s admittedly major shortcomings.

When she was a child, Molly Wright (Tessa Thompson) and her family had an encounter with an alien that instantly attracted the attention of the secret organization known as the Men in Black. But while her parents were both neuralyzed as per MIB regulations, Molly managed to avoid that fate, thus leading her on a mission to prove the organization’s existence. Twenty-three years later, Molly finally manages to locate the Men in Black’s New York headquarters, where she convinces Agent O (Emma Thompson), head of the US branch, that she’s a perfect candidate for the organization given how she was successful in finding them. Thus, Molly is officially dubbed ‘Agent M’ and is sent to MIB’s London headquarters on probationary status. There, she meets the head of the UK branch, High T (Liam Neeson), who pairs her up with his old partner Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) on a mission to protect a member of an alien royal family. However, when the mission goes haywire and the royal family member is killed, MIB suspects that this is the work of a parasitic alien race known as the Hive whose previous attempt at invading the planet was thwarted by High T and H three years prior. Thus, H and M soon find themselves on a globe-trotting adventure to try and prevent another Hive invasion. In the process, however, they quickly realize that all this may be the result of a traitor within MIB’s ranks.

Since this review took a little while to get done, we’re at a point now where it’s become well-known that this film experienced quite a few nasty production issues. Most specifically, F. Gary Gray and producer Walter Parkes frequently clashed over the overall direction of the film to the point where the former repeatedly tried to back out of the production. Thus, it’s been reported that the version of the film that was released in theaters was Parkes’ intended cut rather than Gray’s, which would’ve been a bit more topical with its themes (i.e. some commentary on immigration). And to be perfectly blunt, it’s easy to see why Gray’s version of the film would’ve turned out a lot better because what we ultimately get is a generic retread of the previous Men in Black films. While it is based around new characters (with the only references to the previous films consisting of a few select cameos and some visual nods), the film maintains the same general plot structure of the last three films right down to having its finale revolve around a historic landmark (e.g. the Apollo 11 launch in Men in Black 3). The film doesn’t even live up to the International in its title as the strict adherence to the franchise’s formula prevents it from exploring more of the world of Men in Black despite this being the first installment of the series that isn’t primarily set in New York. At the very least, the film maintains the franchise’s quirky atmosphere when it comes to the antics of its various alien creatures even though this is the first entry of the series to not involve the makeup work of Rick Baker due to his retirement in 2017.  

Ultimately, though, the best part about this film is its main leads. After all, one of the definitive aspects of the original trilogy was the strong dynamic of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones (plus Josh Brolin in the case of the third film). And considering their excellent chemistry in Thor: Ragnarök, it’s easy to see why Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson were paired together once again to become the Men in Black franchise’s newest lead duo. It also helps that these two do end up providing a different kind of pairing when compared to J and K from the previous films. Thompson, for example, may be following Smith’s arc from the first film as the rookie MIB agent, but whereas Agent J was the genuine newbie who was gradually introduced to the concept of aliens living on Earth, Agent M is already well-versed in it when she joins the organization. As for Hemsworth, Agent H’s characterization isn’t that far off from how Thor was initially portrayed in his MCU debut; in other words, a charismatic playboy who doesn’t always think before he acts. And while the big reveal surrounding it is a bit too simplistic, there’s a decent little mystery as to why H hasn’t quite been the same ever since he and High T saved the world despite him continually being regarded as one of the organization’s best agents. M and H are then backed by a solid ally in Pawny (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani), the last survivor of a tiny alien race who ends up pledging allegiance to his new Queen, M, and is quite simply the primary source behind most of the film’s best humorous moments. Everyone else in the film, including Neeson as High T and Rebecca Ferguson as an alien arms dealer who has a notable history with H, is fine in their respective roles but they’re ultimately just ‘there’, for the most part.

I still have vague memories of the first time that I watched the original Men in Black. Obviously, I was too young to see it in theaters in 1997, but I did watch it when I was about eight or nine when it aired on TV one night whilst my family and I were over at a party hosted by a family friend. And while my mom warned me that the film may be a bit too scary given the various alien creatures that appeared in it, this didn’t end up bothering me in the slightest and I became utterly enthralled by it. This then led to me watching the second film (which may not be as good as the first but isn’t quite as bad as a lot of folks say it is) and going to see the third film in theaters, which gave us the great addition of Josh Brolin as a younger K and a genuinely sweet twist in the finale that highlighted the strength of J and K’s relationship. Men in Black 3 was even one of the very first films I ever reviewed on this site, so with that in mind, you could say that I’m a big fan of this franchise and was really looking forward to its newest installment. Sadly, though, Men in Black: International ends up being the weakest of the bunch, though to be fair, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s ‘bad’. It’s just that, as I pointed out earlier in this review, this film was heavily affected by its scandalous production issues to the point where the version of it that we ultimately got is a generic copy of the previous films instead of a more culturally relevant sequel as was initially the plan. Thus, despite the best efforts of the dynamic duo of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson (and a scene-stealing Kumail Nanjiani), Men in Black: International is the very definition of a ‘by-the-numbers’ sequel.    

Rating: 3/5

Mission Impossible - Fallout (2018) review

Over the years, we’ve seen quite a few franchises experience an unexpected resurgence, resulting in the truly rare occasions where their sequels end up being their greatest installments. This has certainly been the case with the Mission Impossible franchise, which has now been running for more than two decades. It all started, of course, with the original film adaptation of the hit TV series of the same name from the 60’s/70’s (plus a short-lived revival in the 80’s) that was released in 1996 starring Tom Cruise in the lead role of Ethan Hunt, an agent of the International Missions Force AKA the IMF. The film also served as Cruise’s official debut as a producer, as he had launched his own production company three years prior with his former casting agent Paula Wagner. Upon its release, the film was one of the highest-grossing films of the year, and this commercial success continued over the course of the series’ initial trilogy of films. The third entry of that trilogy, 2006’s Mission Impossible III, served as the directorial debut of a longtime writer/producer named J.J. Abrams, who then joined the franchise as one of its main producers alongside Cruise starting with the sequel, 2011’s Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol. And under the direction of Brad Bird in his live-action filmmaking debut, Ghost Protocol became the series’ most critically acclaimed and highest-grossing installment to date. Plus, it also helped to revitalize Cruise’s career after some of the, for lack of a better term, tumultuous incidents that he got involved in around the time of MI:3 (e.g. jumping on Oprah’s couch).

Four years later, the series returned with its fifth installment, Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation. Going off the ending tag from Ghost Protocol, the film’s plot took direct inspiration from the TV series by introducing one of its most recurring elements in the form of a terrorist organization known as the Syndicate. And keeping in line with the series’ habit of picking new directors for each new installment, Rogue Nation was directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who got his big break in the film industry by writing 1995’s The Usual Suspects, which earned him an Oscar for Best Screenplay. But in this case, he was most notable for being one of Tom Cruise’s most common collaborators, having worked together on films like Valkyrie, Edge of Tomorrow, and Jack Reacher (which he directed). And upon its release, the film continued the series’ recent hot streak with both critics and audiences to the point where the question of whether Ghost Protocol or Rogue Nation was the series’ best up to that point was quite the legitimate debate. But the biggest thing to come from Rogue Nation’s success was that McQuarrie ultimately ended up becoming the first director who was brought back to helm another Mission Impossible film. And thus, here we are now with the sixth installment of this premier action franchise, Mission Impossible – Fallout. With McQuarrie back behind the camera along with Cruise and the other returning cast members from past installments, things are certainly looking up for a series that has gotten better with each new film. Sure enough, Fallout may just be the series’ greatest outing to date thanks to its thrilling action set-pieces and McQuarrie’s phenomenal direction.

It has been two years since IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team successfully managed to capture Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), the ruthless leader of a rogue terrorist group known as ‘the Syndicate’. Since then, the surviving members of the Syndicate have formed a new faction known as ‘the Apostles’ led by a mysterious fundamentalist named John Lark. And to make matters worse, Ethan and his team end up botching a mission in Berlin, resulting in the Apostles acquiring three plutonium cores that they plan on using to further their plans to disrupt the current World Order. Thus, to prevent the devastating results of a potential nuclear attack, IMF secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) sends Ethan to Paris to hunt down Lark, where he’s set to collect the cores from an arms dealer known as the ‘White Widow’ (Vanessa Kirby). And due to Ethan’s misstep in Berlin, he is also put under the watch of the CIA, specifically director Erica Sloane (Angela Bassett) and her top field agent August Walker (Henry Cavill), the latter of whom joins along on the mission to ensure that Ethan and his team can get the job done. But as the mission goes on, Ethan soon finds himself forced to go down quite a few dark roads, one of which even involves him having to assist the Apostles in breaking Solomon Lane out of custody. And if that wasn’t enough, Ethan’s actions soon lead to Walker beginning to suspect that he is really John Lark, putting more pressure on Ethan to figure out Lark’s identity.

With a subtitle like Fallout, one could only imagine how effective this film is in creating tension. While the series has always done a nice job when it comes to handling this aspect, it’s arguably at its finest here because of how truly high the stakes end up being. Sure enough, this is only strengthened further by the film’s amazing action sequences. Not only are they shot and edited perfectly, but they’re even more visually stunning when viewed in IMAX, continuing the franchise’s trend of utilizing the format to great effect ever since Brad Bird got the ball rolling with Ghost Protocol (sadly, I never got around to seeing Rogue Nation in IMAX). It all culminates in the film’s epic finale, which is quite arguably one of the most intense finales in recent cinematic history given the grand scale of the stunts involved (which, of course, are done practically by Tom Cruise himself, headlined this time by him piloting a helicopter by himself), and the consequences of what would happen if Ethan and his team fail. Simply put, arguably this film’s biggest strength is how finely tuned it is in almost every aspect of its production, resulting in what is truly a beast of an action film. And the same could be said for Rogue Nation as well, meaning that as far as Christopher McQuarrie’s contributions to this franchise are concerned, he’s given us some of the sharpest writing and most kinetic action set-pieces that we’ve ever seen from it. This also extends nicely to the film’s collection of layered characters.

As I’ve stated before, one of the reasons why Ghost Protocol was such a game-changer for the franchise was because it was the first entry in the series to truly capture one of the definitive aspects of its source material, its team dynamic. In other words, whereas the previous three films were directly focused on Ethan Hunt, Ghost Protocol was the first to ensure that his teammates were just as well-developed as he was. As such, the only thing that held Rogue Nation back was that it somewhat reversed course from this; granted, it’s not like there wasn’t any of it in the film to begin with, but it also kept half of the team away from the action for about half the runtime. With Fallout, though, I’m pleased to say that it goes about this more like Ghost Protocol. Sure, Ethan Hunt is still the main character as always (in fact, this film gives Tom Cruise some of the best bits of character development that he’s ever gotten from this franchise), but McQuarrie also does an excellent job of giving his teammates quality amounts of screen-time by comparison. Rebecca Ferguson shines once again as the enigmatic Ilsa Faust (AKA the series’ best female protagonist by far) while Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames once again provide reliable support as Benji Dunn and Luther Stickell, respectively. And as for the villains, Sean Harris continues to be intimidating as all hell as the soft-spoken madman Solomon Lane. Finally, with the newcomers to this franchise, the biggest standout of them all is easily Henry Cavill. Not only does Cavill prove to be just as dedicated as Cruise is when it comes to doing the action sequences, but Walker also ends up being quite the excellent foil to Ethan Hunt given their roles in the story.

When Rogue Nation came out, I was part of the crowd that still preferred Ghost Protocol even through the former was practically almost just as good by comparison. In other words, while Rogue Nation does feature a superior villain, Ghost Protocol was better at balancing its main characters. But as for Fallout, this time I’ll fully admit that I’m siding with the consensus this time when I say that this is the best installment yet of the Mission Impossible franchise. And for those keeping track, yes, we’re talking about the sixth installment of what is currently one of the longest-running film franchises in recent memory. Simply put, this is one of those franchises that has genuinely managed to improve itself with each new installment. With Rogue Nation, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie produced some of the series’ most dynamic action sequences to date, and with Fallout, he somehow manages to refine them even more. The result is a true action spectacle that once again highlights why Tom Cruise is one of the definitive stars of the film industry. Like in every other installment of this series, it’s really him doing all the big stunts, and this series doesn’t shy away from upping the scale of them with each new installment (and yes, that’s even after Rogue Nation literally had him hanging off the side of a plane). And through it all, Cruise is backed by a phenomenal supporting cast who benefit greatly from this film’s excellent handling of the series’ iconic team dynamic. In short, this is a must-see in theaters, especially if you’re able to see it on the biggest screens possible, IMAX. Simply put, this is up there with the likes of its predecessor Ghost Protocol (plus Rogue Nation, I’m sure…), The Walk, and many of Christopher Nolan’s recent films as one of the prime examples of why IMAX is truly one of the best ways to see a film in our current age of cinema.

Rating: 5/5!

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015) review

The ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise has been one of the rare film franchises that has actually gotten better and better as the series has gone on. It started off solidly enough in 1996 with the Brian De Palma-directed ‘Mission Impossible’, which still holds up quite well even after almost two decades. But then the series took a major stumble in 2000 with John Woo’s ‘Mission Impossible II’, as Woo, despite being one of the most famous action directors in the world at the time, proved to be the wrong choice for director, making the film feel more like a Bond film than a ‘Mission Impossible’ film. Thankfully, ‘franchise savior’ J.J. Abrams redeemed the franchise when he made his directorial debut with the third ‘Mission Impossible’ film in 2006 as he brought back the series’ fast-paced tone that had been severely lacking in the second film. But little did we know that the series would get even better in 2011 when Brad Bird made his live-action directorial debut with ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’. Not only did that film feature some of the series’ best action sequences to date but it also greatly excelled in placing greater emphasis on the one major aspect of the franchise that had defined it since its days as a TV series in the 60’s; the team dynamic of the main IMF team. Whereas earlier films placed more emphasis on Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt, sometimes to the detriment of his co-stars, ‘Ghost Protocol’ did a far greater job at balancing out the roles of Ethan’s teammates and giving them solid character development, resulting in the series’ best group of leads to date.

For the fifth film in the franchise, ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’, directing duties go to Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote the screenplay for the film and co-wrote the story with Drew Pearce. While McQuarrie’s directorial resume has been fairly short prior to directing this film, with only two films to his name, he does have the benefit of being one of Tom Cruise’s most frequent collaborators in recent years, having worked on the screenplays for ‘Valkyrie’ and ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and directing Cruise in 2012’s ‘Jack Reacher’ (he also wrote the highly-acclaimed crime drama ‘The Usual Suspects’ for Bryan Singer, who would go on to direct Cruise in ‘Valkyrie’, in 1995). So clearly McQuarrie was a solid choice to take on a ‘Mission Impossible’ film and because of it, ‘Rogue Nation’ is another Grade-A entry in this long-running franchise that has now been around for almost two whole decades. While I don’t know if I can go as far as say that it is ‘better’ than ‘Ghost Protocol’, namely due to it going back a bit on one of the best aspects of its predecessor, ‘Rogue Nation’ delivers exactly what you’ve come to expect from this franchise; impressive, tension-filled action sequences and a fast-paced story that is full of twists and turns. All of this results in what is easily one of the best blockbusters of the year that continues the resurgence of the ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise.

At the end of ‘Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol’, IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) received a mission brief about ‘the Syndicate’, a rogue organization full of trained operatives, like the IMF, that have been behind a series of attacks all over the world. As ‘Rogue Nation’ begins, Ethan has been spending the last year trying to prove the Syndicate’s existence with little success. To make matters worse, as a result of all of the IMF’s actions in previous films, the government has the IMF disbanded. Around this time, Ethan finally gets a lead on the Syndicate when he has a run-in with the organization’s leader, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). But due to the IMF’s disbandment and him being branded as a fugitive by the CIA, Ethan is forced to go rogue, along with his IMF teammates Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), William Brandt (Jeremy Renner), and Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), as well as a new ally in Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a disavowed MI6 agent working with the Syndicate, in order to take down Solomon Lane and the Syndicate before they can take down the IMF. 

Just like with previous entries in the franchise, ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ greatly delivers in terms of its action sequences. Of course there is the famous moment featured in the trailer, which actually serves as the opening sequence of the film, where Ethan Hunt hangs onto the side of a military aircraft as it takes off. But then you also have some other exceptional action sequences, from Ethan’s dive into a secure underwater server without the use of any oxygen tanks to a tense fight sequence inside a Vienna Opera House. And of course these sequences are even more effective due to their practical execution that once again shows that Tom Cruise is quite the badass due to him always doing his own stunts. Each ‘Mission Impossible’ director has brought something different to the franchise, from Brad Bird’s comic sensibilities to J.J. Abrams’ modern-day action aesthetic. In the case of McQuarrie, I’d say his biggest strength as director is in regards to how well he stages the film’s action sequences that in turn result in solid build-up, with the aforementioned Opera House sequence being the prime example of this. Like Brad Bird before him, McQuarrie does an excellent job in establishing solid suspense through both the action sequences and the overall plot. And because of both the latter and the film’s solid screenplay full of the usual twists and turns that one would expect from a film of this genre, I was fully invested in this film from beginning to end.

However, there is one thing about this film that is a little disappointing to me coming off of ‘Ghost Protocol’ and that is that it backtracks a bit on one of the greatest things about its immediate predecessor; the team dynamic. Despite being series regulars, Brandt and Luther are mostly ignored for the first half of the film, sidelined away from the action while the film focuses more on Ethan Hunt. While the film does attempt to further develop Ethan as a character through what could’ve been an interesting plot-point of him possibly being deranged in thinking that the Syndicate is real, at the end of the day it doesn’t really go anywhere and is actually rather pointless given the fact that he is ultimately shown to be right. Thankfully Simon Pegg isn’t underused early on like Renner and Rhames as Benji is right there with Ethan for most of the film’s first half. Plus, Brandt and Luther eventually end up rejoining them for the second half of the film so it’s not like ‘Mission Impossible II’ where Rhames and John Polson were completely underused due to a greater focus on Ethan Hunt. And when the four are all together, their camaraderie with one another is just as strong as it was in previous films. But then you have the biggest standout of the entire film in Rebecca Ferguson as female lead Ilsa. Described by some as the ‘female Ethan Hunt’ of the film, Ferguson more than holds her own against Cruise and is quite frankly the most interesting character in the entire film, an agent forced to work for the Syndicate so that she wouldn’t risk being killed by them.  

When it comes to villains, the ‘Mission Impossible’ films have admittedly had some lackluster foes for Ethan Hunt and his team to face. The most notorious case of this has been with ‘Ghost Protocol’. It may be a masterpiece but its single downfall is that it had the series’ weakest villain to date, but like with most of the MCU films, I didn’t think it was that big of an issue due to how well-written the main characters were. Before this film’s release, the series’ greatest villain had been Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian from ‘Mission Impossible III’. But even then that was more due to Hoffman’s excellent performance in the role and not because of the writing. In other words, he was more of an intimidating foe than he was a well-written one as a result of that film’s action-heavy pacing. So as far as ‘Mission Impossible’ villains are concerned, Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane is the series’ best villain to date in terms of the writing. Compared to Hendricks, the villain from ‘Ghost Protocol’, Lane has a much more substantial role in the film as the main villain and has a greater presence that can be felt throughout the entire film. He proves to be a solid foil to Ethan Hunt and is sort of like the Joker in how he always manages to be one step ahead of Ethan and his team. And for the record this is all without him ever really partaking in any of the film’s action sequences.

I’ll admit that I’m a little disappointed that the team dynamic that had been handled to such great effect in ‘Ghost Protocol’ wasn’t managed as well here to the point where two of the main leads don’t get anything major to do until the film’s second half. That’s why at the end of the day I feel that ‘Ghost Protocol’ is still the best film in the series, even if this film does have the advantage of having a much stronger villain. But that doesn’t mean that ‘Rogue Nation’ is a bad film… far from it. It still very much succeeds in delivering on what you have come to expect from this franchise; amazing action sequences, solid tension (primarily thanks to the action sequences), and an overall fast-paced tone. Director Christopher McQuarrie does an excellent job as director, primarily due to how well he sets up the film’s action sequences. So thanks to McQuarrie’s solid direction, an excellent ensemble cast, and a solid screenplay/story that kept me engrossed from beginning to end, ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ is another excellent installment of a franchise that has only gotten better and better over the years. It really is quite impressive how far this series has come from its early days, especially after the second film could’ve potentially killed the franchise due to it being, well, pretty damn mediocre. But thanks to its last three films, the ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise has now become one of the best, if not the best, action film franchises around.  

Rating: 4.5/5