So the Mission Impossible movies for me go pretty good with bad Tom Cruise hair, really
bad with great Tom Cruise hair, ok with ok Tom Cruise hair, and fantastic with fantastic
Tom Cruise hair, twice.
Point is as a fan of action movies, as a big fan of spy movies and as a fan of good movies
in general, I love this franchise.
The last 2 in particular are two of my favorite action movies ever.
So expectations were pretty high for the 6th entry for me.
So, now that it’s out, let’s talk about it.
*clip* So did MI6 live up to my very high expectations.
Yes, yes it did.
Mission Impossible Fallout is spectacular.
On Instagram I said it might by my favorite movie of the year so far, that was right after
I got out of it, having let it sink in a little longer, it might not be my absolute favorite,
but it's definitely up there.
It’s pretty much everything you would want from a movie like this.
Also, I’m not gonna talk spoilers, but I am gonna talk about a few small details in
terms of the structure of the film and certain scenes that won’t spoil the movie but you
might not wanna know, so maybe just watch this after you’ve seen the movie.
Cast, ok, Tom Cruise, I know I make fun of him quite a bit especially on the podcast,
but regardless of how weird he may be in real life, he is a great movie star.
Not only the doing his own stunts thing which we’ll get to later, but he’s fun to watch
and charismatic and basically what you’d want from a movie star.
Tom Cruise’s team is great again, Ving Rhames, the only other cast member who's been with
this franchise since the start, he’s good, Rebecca Ferguson is just as badass as she
was the last time around, and Simon Pegg is one of my favorite actors of all time.
He’s very funny and provides natural feeling comic relief (and on the whole the movie is
quite funny.
Pretty much all of the humor worked for me).
Sean Harris returns as a super creepy snake like villain and he’s fantastic.
Character wise he’s not that exceptional as far as villains go, but for the purposes
of this movie, he’s very hateable, he’s very creepy, he works as the one they have
to take down here.
The rest of the cast, Baldwin, Basset, they’re good too, Jeremy Renner’s also awesome….ahhh
wait, and then the big new addition, Henry Cavill as August Walker.
Henry Cavill is a great actor, and I feel like he hasn’t gotten a chance to show that
as much in the DC movies, and the one movie where I felt like he started to shine was
forever ruined by this movie in a way.
But here, he is awesome.
He adds a great new dynamic to the team and it's very fun to see him playing off of Tom
Cruise in both conversation and in action.
It's like they say in the movie, Ethan’s like a scalpel, Walker’s like a hammer.
He’s just this bull in a china shop tank of a man who just gets the job done as fast
as he can and I thought that was a really fun new addition, and Cavill pulls it off
really well.
Also yes, the stache is as glorious as you would’ve hoped.
Then, the other biggest part of these movies is the action, and damn does this movie deliver.
This might have the best action scenes of any Mission Impossible film, and that’s
saying something.
The thing that’s great about it is there’s such a variety of action, there are fist fights,
there are car chases, there are motorcycle chases, there are foot chases, there are helicopter
duels, and it's all fantastically executed.
One of the highlights has got to be that bathroom fight, again, seeing Cavill, Hunt, and the
guy they’re trying to take down’s different fighting styles clashing was incredibly entertaining.
Also, can I just say, I know this is sort of an obvious point, but I love that Mission
Impossible theme so much.
When it comes on during the action sometimes, I just can’t help but smile.
The movie also has actual stakes, like I genuinely thought a character could die at some point
in the movie, so it had me sort of on the edge of my seat even if I suspected, it’s
probably gonna work out, but still.
And then, the finale.
This has one of the best action movie finales I think I’ve ever seen, it is incredible.
It’s set in this absolutely gorgeous location, one of the most beautiful locations in any
Mission Impossible film, it's excellently shot, it's clever, it all looks real, it is
phenomenal.
My heart was pounding that entire time.
And like everyone knows, Tom Cruise does his own stunts and everything, yada yada, but
it does actually make a difference in the action, because it looks totally real.
You can tell he actually does these things and as much as people might say that doing
my own stunts is just a gimmick, it actually has a positive effect on the action scenes,
so good on you Cruise.
Also, one of my only problems with Mission Impossible 4 is that the movie kind of peaks
with the Burj Khalifa scene in the middle, and while the rest is still great, nothing
ever gets that amazing again.
But here, the whole movie builds to this epic finale and the climax of the movie feels like
a proper culmination and easily the peak of action and stunts and excitement in an otherwise
action packed movie, so bravo for that.
The movie has a lot of twists and turns, it keeps you intrigued throughout even if some
are a bit obvious.
And I’ll mention this in the negatives, but while it does have a similar formula as
the other films, it’s never boring because of it.
Because of how they change the elements inside that formula, the action, the locations, the
characters, it still feels fresh.
The movie is well paced, with a good balance of action then exposition, action then exposition.
There are no long stretches of just nothingness or action scenes that go on for seemingly
eyears.
The movie’s also very well made with some great cinematography, maybe better than the
previous films in my opinion.
There are some gorgeous shots in this movie, one involving a motorcycle helmet, that hall
of mirrors, and basically the entire finale is just amazingly shot again.
Besides two pieces of CGI, one shot of a storm and one of shot of some helicopters, everything
looks totally real, which I loved.
Andagain, like other Mission IMpossible films, it doesn't hurt that most of this movie is
set in some beautiful locations.
There are some tense scenes in this that absolutely work.
There are also a surprising number of references to the other movies, which these haven’t
really done before, they’ve been more independent, but hey I’m glad to see Ethan’s rock climbing
finally came back into play.
The movie also has surprisingly interesting characters and motivations, especially with
Ethan and Elsa or Ilsa or however yous ay it.
FOr a while, we didn't really know a lot about Ethan Hunt but they’ve really started fleshing
him out and I thought some of the stuff they talk about with his wife in this movie was
interesting.
Speaking of which Michelle Monaghan is back from 3, which I thought provided some good
development for Ethan, but also I fear for the movie that a lot of people are not gonna
know who she is.
I mean they establish whos he is in the movie, but any emotion that could’ve been built
up from that movie will be lost on a lot of people who haven’t seen it here, I heard
some girls behind me whispering about how they were confused and didn't get who she
was.
So I don’t know, I just think there’s a sizable part of the audience who don't have
seen that movie or remember it.
I also appreciated how this movie really acknowledges the Mission Impossible tropes, that led to
some interesting and funny moments.
Like how Hunt has gone rogue in like every single movie, so now they suspect he might
be going rogue because of how many times he’s gone rogue.
There’s also a line and response in here that I won’t spoil about hope that cracked
me up cuz it’s very true for these past 5 movies.
Also, and this is veering towards spoiler terriotry so I’ll try to keep this as vague
as possible, but there were 2 scenes that I really didn't like at the star to them and
ended up loving at the end.
That’s all I’ll say for now.
Besides maybe a lot of spy stuff which I’ll get to later, this really just has everything
you could want out of a Mission Impossible film.
Awesome action, cool one liners, Tom Cruise trying to kill himself in front of a film
crew *hitting wall take*, Tom Cruise doing his infamous muppet run, masks, everything.
It’s a very fun, entertaining, satisfying film.
Now having said all those super positive things, you might assume I have no complaints with
this.
Well, unfortunately that's not the case.
There’s nothing movie breaking here, but there were a few things I wasn’t a big fan
of here.
For one, the first action scene of the film I didn't really like and not cuz of the action
but because of a really ridiculously stupid thing these characters do.
And the whole movie kind of hinges on this mistake that’s made in the first 5 minutes,
they show it a little in the trailers, and that kinda sucks cuz I thought that was the
most ridiculous mistake possible.
The fact that these superspies who’ve been doing this for like 20 years now make an incredibly
rookie mistake like this just sort of irritated me.
The film’s story on the whole though, although like I mentioned it does make fun of the Mission
Impossible tropes and cliches, it still does use them.
This isn’t that new of a story, from the general premise to specific moments, we’ve
seen a lot of this plot-wise before.
The movie is creative in other ways, like the execution of a more overdone story, so
that doesn't really drag down the experience for me, but it still should be pointed out.
Even the villain’s plan, while not identical, reminded me a lot of the villain’s plan
from Mission Impossible 4.
There’s one pretty predictable twist from the very start, although I guess the movie
didn't really try to make it not predictable?
It’s hard to explain without spoiling, but the movie wasn’t trying to do like a Sixth
Sense-esque twist, it's just sometimes these turns happened and I was like, oh were we
not already supposed to know that?
There’s also one scene where a character very very clunkily delivers some exposition
in that movie way that no normal person, especially not a super spy would do.
The movie also requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, which isn’t really a problem
for me, cuz with this type of movie, that’s sort of a given and part of the fun, that
this isn’t gonna be that realistic.
I’m not gonna go into Mission Impossible and pick apart all the unrealistic stuff.
But sometimes, it seems a bit inconsistent with the rules of the world and it might’ve
gotten a little too ridiculous for its own good?
Like the ridiculousness in this movie ranges from tiny stuff that’s more just slightly
amusing for a second like how after the most brutal fight sequences these characters don’t
have a single scratch or bruise on their face to like Fast and Furious levels of unbelievableness,
for example a few moments in the finale or in that skydiving sequence.
I wouldn’t have a problem with it (and still I don’t have a big one) if the movie just
wasn’t a little inconsistent?
Like sometimes it seemed be a little more serious and grounded and most of the time
it went back to the classic more ridiculous over the top-ness, and that contrast just
the made the really out there ridiculous moments stick out more.
Don’t get me wrong, ridiculous moments and unbelievable stuff is to be expected in Mission
Impossible movies, like when Ethan survives so much that should kill him in that car park
in 4, or when they trap the villain in a giant glass box in 5.
But I mentioned it when I reviewed those, so it’s only fair that I mention it here.
Also occasionally it's very transparent they just wanna get to this giant big set piece
that's as tense as possible and they don’t do it very cleverly, at least one time.
In the set up for the finale there’s a plot device that they mention right before without
much explanation which sort of made me chuckle just cuz it's very obvious they just wanted
to get that mission to be as impossible as possible.
Still, I loved the action scene that set up, so whatever.
Also, this isn’t really a big complaint or anything, because the movie is very entertaining
and fun as just an action movie, but every since Ghost Protocol, which was the peak of
crazy spy gadgets (which is the type of spy stuff that I love the most), these movies
have become more just straight ahead action films with the occasional spy stuff.
Like it’s still great, but I personally just love the crazy spy stuff so much that
I wish we could see more of it.
Overall though, I loved Mission Impossible Fallout.
The at times by the books and kinda predictable plot is totally overshadowed by the action,
the characters, and the overall fun and excitement of the whole film.
I feel like a lot of movie’s I’ve talked about recently I’ve just thought were alright
and I’ve said, I don’t really see myself revisiting this, well this film actually made
me feel something and I can totally see myself rewatching this in the future.
It’s another excellent entry in one of the best franchises and I think if you count Mission
Impossible 4, 5, and 6 as its own trilogy, it's definitely one of my favorite trilogies
of all time.
I’ll give Mission Impossible 6 a 9.5/10.
As far as where I’d rank it, I’d put it here, but that could change to this cuz I
like these two pretty evenly.
So those were my thoughts on Mission Impossible 6.
What did you think of it?
Let me know all of your thoughts down below in the comments.
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Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya next time.