Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Before I headed off to Europe, I wanted to be sure to catch Mission Impossible in the theater. It seemed like a “better in the theater” sort of experience, and I’d read good things about it, so why not?

The good things were confirmed.

The Mission Impossible series of films seem like they’re almost defying the typical sequel structure. It seemed like they were heading for sequelville for the first while. Mission Impossible II was pretty weak, John Woo or no John Woo. But somehow they bucked the trend, and after watching this movie, it reminded me of an early James Bond franchise. As if the series might manage to get to a level where it breaks free of petty things like numbering the films and just is this continuous platform for action espionage movies.

You’ve got all the basic elements: death-defying stunts, great action sequences, stable characters who never really change, awesome gadgets. The film felt like James Bond: Team Edition, and that’s a very good thing in my book.

Plus, Tom Cruise seems set to prove to the world that he just doesn’t care when it comes to his personal safety. The opening sequence where they literally have him hang onto a plane while it takes off? Insanity.

The movie might have been a tad too long. I think they could have tightened things up a bit more and shaved off 5-10 minutes and ended up with an even better end result, but that’s about all I had to complain about. The plot made sense, it wasn’t predictable, and it was just a fantastic escape movie. (Though I have a hard time watching any movie with Alec Baldwin in it these days and not pretending he’s playing his character from 30 Rock, which sometimes tends to break the tension.)

This is a good one, people. Check it out. 9 out of 10 from me. Seen it already? What did you think?