I know that I am the only one to blame. Guilty pleasures are often punished and enjoying action movies now and than is one of those. I also should know that in the first week on screens it’s mostly the hardcore fans running to see the film and writing viewer comments on IMDB, so the current stellar grade does not really mean that ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout‘ (8.5 right now) is a better film than ‘Citizen Kane’ (8.4). I took the risk of being among the early viewers and I was punished. The quality level of the installments of the M:I series is on a decreasing curve, and this is continuing with this latest issue in the series. My opinion, of course.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4912910
I am never judging an action movie with the same criteria as I am judging a drama, a comedy, or an art film. Yet, there are some elements that I look for in any film – a story that has logic and catches my interest, and characters that I care about. None of them is present in this film co-written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie whom Tom Cruise trusted with writing and directing some of his latest movies. The story of the rogue terrorists threatening to blow up the planet or at least half of it is placed as many of the latest movies in the genre in an aseptic and non-politic environment with non-identifiable bad guys, so that nobody is bothered and the film can be sold in as many markets as possible. The heroes destroy half of Paris and a quarter of London killing scores of policemen and innocent by-standers with no consequences. The main hero has a couple of Ethan-girls to care about and one more who seems to care for him, but the characters seem to be frozen or maybe wearing some of those rubber masks that the heroes are experts in.
(video source Paramount Pictures)
Yes, there are good and well paced and choreographed action scenes, but their gathering of coincidences makes them non-credible. The 3D capabilities are well used, but there is nothing that we haven’t seen yet. Actually this M:I looks more like a 3D James Bond film, without the charm of Bond. There is a change of guard in managing Ethan Hunts activities, and Angela Bassett seems to replace Alec Baldwin who probably had enough and decided to jump wagon. Frankly speaking, I am not sure that I want to see M:I7 after this disappointing M:I6. Tom Cruise is 56 years now, and cannot pretend being 35 or 40 years old forever. He seems to enjoy the narcissistic exercises that the movies he plays in for the last ten years, but how long can these last. If I am not mistaken his last non-action role was in Valkyrie in 2008. On the other side, if he has fun and viewers have fun watching him, who am I to tell him what to do? I can only decide to not watch his next movies.