Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation- Movie Review

Rating: A- 

About 19 years ago, the Mission Impossible franchise began. You would think after a while the sequels would lose steam, especially by the fifth movie. Lets face it, most action film franchises really don't produce great movies consistently. The Star Wars franchise had three awesome movies then three atrocious movies. The Terminator series has only two great movies. I've personally never really enjoyed a Fast and Furious film and there's been seven of those! So, by the track record of action/adventure based franchises, would it be safe to assume the Mission Impossible franchise would also fall into a slump? Absolutely. Yet has it? Not at all. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation was just awesome.

Tom Cruise returned to reprise his role as Ethan Hunt and nailed it yet again. Cruise is a natural action star and his screen presence is awesome. The man is 53 and just gets cooler with age. He's like a fine wine, except he's just always been this good. I will never ever complain about a Tom Cruise performance. He's proven time and time again that he's just excellent. Also returning was the hilarious Simon Pegg who reprised his role as Benji Dunn. Not only was Pegg funny, he had some seriously fantastic well acted moments. I feel like many overlook his capabilities as an actor. The dude had some really intense scenes in this film and really delivered. Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames also returned and were just as good as always. The returning cast of this film was excellent. I really hope a sixth film does come out because these guys are just brilliant together as a team. The duo of Pegg and Cruise on its own is also fantastic. They have amazing chemistry.

I also enjoyed Rebecca Ferguson's performance for the most part. She wasn't my favorite character but she was very decent. I personally didn't enjoy the main villain, Lane who was played by Sean Harris. I'm not knocking his performance. When he was on the screen, Harris was wickedly evil and creepy. I just didn't understand his character's motivation for some of the movie. The character of Lane had little development and he turned into a very average foe. I understand there's only so much time in a movie, but a great villain would've made this movie even better. 

The action sequences in this film were spectacular. The scene involving Tom Cruise's character and the plane was just awesome. Yet, there's so much more. This film has one of the coolest motorcycle chases I've ever seen in film. The car chases are great as usual and the intensity is great. The fight scenes are great and, for the most part, extremely unique. You will end up sitting at the edge of your seat a lot in this movie. You feel as if the characters are never truly safe and that anything can happen. And that makes this movie so great.

Besides the okay villain, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation rules. It's easily a must see. Go out of your way to see it. You will not regret it. 

(I highly recommend this movie in IMAX. It adds a lot to your movie going experience.)