The greatest appeal of Mission: Impossible – Fallout is not just the action, it’s the acknowledgement that the IMF is far from infallible.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout Synopsis
The Impossible Mission Force screws up a major operation, resulting in a new global threat in the form of the Apostles, a terrorist group formed from the remnants of the Syndicate from Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Because of this, Ethan Hunt is forced to work alongside questionable CIA Special Activities operative August Walker during efforts to salvage the situation. When they close in on the Apostles, Ethan discovers the details of another heinous plot, one that targets a third of the world’s population. Worse, the Apostles have more than mass murder on their minds. Their true intention is none other than to liberate Solomon Lane. I.E. the psychopathic creator of the Syndicate put away by Ethan and his team in the previous movie.
Snappy Review
Heaps of accolades have already been showered on Mission: Impossible – Fallout, within hours of its release, if I might add. To avoid regurgitation, I’m going to approach this snappy review in a different way.
Question. What are the winning qualities of a successful summer action flick?
For me, first and foremost would (of course) be the plot. By this, I don’t just mean whether the story is creatively written, or whether it’s socially appropriate. It’s also whether the story is overall, believable. There’s a really thin line between the imaginative and the absurd. Crossing over to the nonsensical for the sake of a few extra thrills is the tactic of lame productions. The flicks that do this are inevitably the ones that end up scorned and derided.
Second on my list is pacing. Sounds trite but there is a reason why palette cleansers are a must in fine dining. The same goes for movies, and they usually come in the form of humour.
Third: the professionalism of the leads. By this, I refer to the tendency of some A-listers to openly express their disdain on screen; the ones who do not hesitate to tell you they are bored and just there for the money. To put it in another way, actors must never be seen as merely going through the motions. Viewers must never get the feeling they are insignificant; there is no worse insult for movie-lovers than this.
Coming back to Mission: Impossible – Fallout, I’d say it scores admirably on all three counts, particularly for believability. Apart from awesome camera work that truly communicates the scope of the action sequences, no segment lingers too long near the impossible, pun intended when I use that word. Suspension of belief while watching doesn’t require excessive work.
Naturally, there are still several superhuman moments; I doubt Leonidas himself could get up so effortlessly after being bumped and rolled over by a BMW. That said, these moments are, more or less, counter-balanced by the emphasis on the fallibility of the IMF. We know that despite these stunts, the entire team could be instantly taken out if one knows what to squeeze.
Such a balance not only provides for texture in the story, it establishes the relatability and the lovability of the “heroes.” Packaged with the globe-trotting premise of the story, Fallout is quite simply, a sheer joy to watch. This is one movie I’d rewatch many times when it’s available on streaming.
Click here to view the trailer.
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