Post 1: An Impossible Mission Executed With Gusto (A Review of "Mission: Impossible - Fallout")
Having always had a love of films, and action films in particular, I decided to watch Mission: Impossible - Fallout, which is touted as one of the best action films of the decade. I'm happy to say, it did not disappoint at all. The film starts with a mission to recover missing plutonium that can be used to make highly-destructive bombs, but the mission quickly goes awry, and what follows is an hunt for the plutonium and the masterminds who plan to use it for a devious plot to threaten the world.
The film can be considered the epitome of the summer blockbuster action film, executed near-perfectly. The action is thrilling and relentless from start to finish, the film is tightly plotted (all the more impressive considering they only had a rough 30-page outline when they began to shoot the film), with many surprising twists and turns, and the dialogue is brilliant, focusing on meaningful character interactions, most of which build off of the events and character beats of the previous five films. Most of Ethan Hunt's team returns, along with mysterious heroine Ilsa Faust, Ethan's superior Hunley, and terrorist mastermind Solomon Lane. Newcomers include a pragmatic CIA Director, a ruthless CIA agent tasked with overseeing the new mission and watching Ethan's every move to ensure he does not go rogue, an alluring arms dealer, and a mysterious extremist terrorist named "John Lark".
What is the most successful about this instalment is that it uses all the characters, all the proverbial pieces on the board, very effectively. The brief quiet moments in the film are placed at just the right spots in the film to contrast with the frantic action, serving as the emotional core of the film, anchoring the impossible action with a real heart. Also, while the plot might be not much different from what we've seen from other similar films, but when the action and characters are this engaging, when most of the twists are this nicely done, you can forgive some of the plot points being familiar. Furthermore, this is a film that respects the audience with a story that asks the audience to piece the bits of the puzzle together alongside the characters, by giving a lot of information at the start and slowly peeling away the layers while adding more parts to it, trusting the audience to be able to keep up with just enough explanation.
My only real problem with the film was the sound design when some sounds become a bit too loud for me to hear anything else. Thankfully, no important information was given at those times, so I suppose it's more of a minor gripe than anything.
All in all, this was an extremely enjoyable film that contains riveting action, great performances and character interaction, an intriguing if familiar story, and brilliant pacing. It is, indeed, one of the best action films of the decade, and one of the best I have seen. So, if you want a good, fun summer action blockbuster, look no further than Mission: Impossible - Fallout.
The film can be considered the epitome of the summer blockbuster action film, executed near-perfectly. The action is thrilling and relentless from start to finish, the film is tightly plotted (all the more impressive considering they only had a rough 30-page outline when they began to shoot the film), with many surprising twists and turns, and the dialogue is brilliant, focusing on meaningful character interactions, most of which build off of the events and character beats of the previous five films. Most of Ethan Hunt's team returns, along with mysterious heroine Ilsa Faust, Ethan's superior Hunley, and terrorist mastermind Solomon Lane. Newcomers include a pragmatic CIA Director, a ruthless CIA agent tasked with overseeing the new mission and watching Ethan's every move to ensure he does not go rogue, an alluring arms dealer, and a mysterious extremist terrorist named "John Lark".
What is the most successful about this instalment is that it uses all the characters, all the proverbial pieces on the board, very effectively. The brief quiet moments in the film are placed at just the right spots in the film to contrast with the frantic action, serving as the emotional core of the film, anchoring the impossible action with a real heart. Also, while the plot might be not much different from what we've seen from other similar films, but when the action and characters are this engaging, when most of the twists are this nicely done, you can forgive some of the plot points being familiar. Furthermore, this is a film that respects the audience with a story that asks the audience to piece the bits of the puzzle together alongside the characters, by giving a lot of information at the start and slowly peeling away the layers while adding more parts to it, trusting the audience to be able to keep up with just enough explanation.
My only real problem with the film was the sound design when some sounds become a bit too loud for me to hear anything else. Thankfully, no important information was given at those times, so I suppose it's more of a minor gripe than anything.
All in all, this was an extremely enjoyable film that contains riveting action, great performances and character interaction, an intriguing if familiar story, and brilliant pacing. It is, indeed, one of the best action films of the decade, and one of the best I have seen. So, if you want a good, fun summer action blockbuster, look no further than Mission: Impossible - Fallout.
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