Mission: Impossible - Fallout Movie Review

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

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Written by: Christopher McQuarrie, Bruce Geller (based on television series created by)
Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time to recover three plutonium cores after a mission goes wrong.

Verdict
I was over half way in before realizing I wasn't still in the first act. This moves fast despite being over two hours long, and that's because it's primarily pedal to the floor action. It's unadulterated spectacle that only lags when it attempts to be comedic or serious. I'm rarely so impressed with the scripting and choreography of action scenes, but nearly every action sequence is impressive. With the big finale, I wondered how someone comes up with something like that. In a movie like this, the story gets in the way.
Watch it.

Review
I expected this to be much like Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (read my review), a collection of larger than life set pieces and ridiculous action that side steps reality when necessary. It's entertaining, but shallow though it does have a certain appeal with the tales of Tom Cruise doing his own stunts. For this movie, Cruise is again doing his own stunts and he even got his helicopter license in record time. While Rogue Nation was shallow, Fallout doubles down on the action and is all the better for it.

Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt.

It starts out with what you quickly determine is a dream, but I don't like it. While it has a purpose later in the movie, anytime Tom Cruise isn't running, jumping, or flying the movie feels like it's crawling.
This is heavy on the action and it's awesome action. The scripting and choreography is quite impressive.

Plutonium cores spark the plot of the movie. Ethan, Benji, and Luther attempt to recover the stolen cores and things go bad. Ethan saves the team, but loses the plutonium.
Between action scenes are twists, turns, and double crosses. Nothing is ever quite what it seems. Early on you realize Ethan and team are up to something while interrogating a suspect. What we think we see, isn't always the case. That remains true throughout the movie.
With hidden villains and various aliases intrigue is always high. Ethan is masquerading as a terrorist while trying to recover the plutonium and that leads to a double cross and the CIA doubting him. Has Ethan turned rogue?

Even the audience doesn't always know what Ethan is planning. There's a part where he double crosses a group of bad guys he's working with. There was no indication, but it's a welcome surprise that keeps us guessing.

Henry Cavill plays a CIA agent, Walker, tasked with monitoring Ethan. Of course Ethan doesn't like that, but Cavill is great as Cruise's counterpoint. Walker never quite fit in, maybe it's the mustache. Ilsa also returns to help Ethan along the way, though her mission remains murky, intertwined with the plutonium cores and Solomon Lane from Rogue Nation who also returns.

Numerous times in I marveled at the professional and polished directing. This is how you do action, and the movie feels huge in a good way.
There's a fight in a bathroom early on that is well done. From choreography to composition and colors. While everything is a bit too fragile, including a wall demolished during the fight, it's a cool scene. With each scene the action gets bigger and more daring, by the end it's just crazy.

The action is exhilarating, but this movie loses something when it slows down. While twists, turns, and reveals are a welcome breather, the comedic relief doesn't always land as it's such a change in tone. The serious moments just make me wish the action would return. The serious dialog is an attempt to impart emotional stakes to the action, but it's tacked on and forced. Exposition doesn't work, especially in a movie like this.

The big action sequence with the helicopters is just crazy. I don't know how you even come up with an idea like that. You can always count on Ethan saving the day and this is no exception, but this really makes you wonder. I do wish the movie had cut at the peak of victory. Instead we get a scene full of dialog and something pseudo serious. No one comes to this movie to see dialog. It's about action and what crazy stunts Tom Cruise will do. You can tell the guy is going all out. He broke his ankle on a rooftop jump.

My ranking for the franchise would be Fallout, Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, I, III, II.