By Cynthia Ayala

“Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.”—IMDB

What an amazing film. Say what you will about Tom Cruise, you may not agree with his religious views, but he is a fantastic actor. Moreover, really, why judge a person by their views, judge by their actions. He is a great guy, a little crazy, but he has grown up so much since his chair stunt on Oprah, and his growth has bled into his acting. He is phenomenal, and the Mission: Impossible franchise only reinforces how great of an actor he is.

Let’s start with the fact that this is an action film. It is not meant to be some profound experience. Moreover, yet, for an action flick, it is more than just a mashup of stunt after stunt. There is a credible story here, and it flows effortlessly. The story is a solid story and has a lot of tension and depth to it. The most substantial part of the film is the fact that it connects to so many emotional moments from the previous films. There’s a rich story here about Ethan treasuring the one life as much as the lives of many.

It is a great action movie because it also has all these stunts and as insane and impossible as the stunts are it is not like the movies just trying to one-up itself. Yes, the movie is one-upping itself, but it works within the context of the film it is not just like this outrageous thing for the sake of being outrageous it fits within the movie. That is part of one of the what makes this movie so great is the action sequences they are fat they keep the viewer on their toes, they keep Tom Cruise on his toes. The acting is so good because it’s not like they’re just playing out these stunts, acting like it was no big deal afterwards, there’s a reality is into it on especially when Tom Cruise is doing all his stunts, the audience can see the exhaustion on his face you can see the power in his movements. The audience can see the effort it takes for Cruise to do his stunts. Say what you will about the man, but you have to give him his credit for doing his stunts. He trains for these roles so that they are as believable and real as possible. He is so exhausted, and that brings in the level of realism to his role and the film. Nothing goes 100% according to plan, nothing in real life does, which creates tension, because yes, the audience knows he is going to win in the end, but that does not mean everything has to go according to plan. That is no fun at all. That would not keep the audience on the edge of their seats, but this movie does. This film utilizations misdirection perfectly, making it unpredictable. That makes the movie more perfect.

Again acting is wonderful. Tom Cruise is not the only amazing actor in this movie. Yes, he is the central star, but the way he works in tandem with his co-stars, the dynamics, and richness of their chemistry makes the movie so good. These actors make the audience invested in these characters, in their stories and their relationships with one another both past and present. The writing is terrific because it creates tension and brings so many elements of the previous films together, bringing the characters together.

All in all, this is probably the best film in the series. It is intense it is tension driven is character-driven is plot-driven all of which make it a great action flick and sets a new bar for how action flicks should be ranked. (★★★★ | A+)

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—Film Credits—

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Written by Christopher McQuarrie

Based on Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller

Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan, Vanessa Kirby & Alec Baldwin

Rating | Length | Genre: PG-13 | 2h 27min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

Distributed by Paramount Pictures