Reviewing the Fallout

The newest installment in the Mission: Impossible series, Fallout, is being touted by many as the best of them all. That's a hard one for me to judge. These movies are a real cotton candy confection -- they're often tasty and satisfying to consume, but they instantly evaporate into nothingness. I remember liking the most recent two films, but today I couldn't tell you much about them. There's an underwater sequence in... Ghost Protocol, right? Tom Cruise hangs off the side of a plane in Rogue Nation, definitely -- that's on all the posters. The plot? Hmmmm.....

This hard-to-remember quality, combined with the long breaks between new films being released, is particularly tricky for this new installment, as it's a direct sequel to Rogue Nation. The villain is the same, the array of heroes is mostly the same, there's clear memory and history in their behavior with each other, and there are several mentions of past events. On the one hand, I find it refreshing that all this stuff matters in a big action film; on the other hand, I hadn't prepped with any "homework" of re-watching the earlier films, and just sort of had to roll with the punches.

Even if there had been no attempt at a meaningful story, though, Fallout would have delivered some solid visceral thrills. The action sequences are really a cut above this time around, very cleverly conceived. As per usual in this series, many of the stunts are filmed for real with little or no CG trickery, adding an extra visual jolt. The "mission" this time around leads very organically to the action, too. You know that movies like this are usually reverse-engineered: what sort of story can connect these two set pieces we've come up with? But Fallout doesn't feel like this at all, with action seeming to spring naturally from where the adventure leads.

I do think perhaps some of the action could have been more tightly edited, though. Exhilarating premises that start strong sometimes sputter before concluding. For example, there are two chases through the streets of Paris in the middle of the movie. Each one is rather long, and while another sequence changes the tempo between the two, they feel of a piece -- a piece that has you checking your watch after a while. The climax has similar problems. It's conceived wonderfully, breaking up the team and putting each person in the middle of their own simultaneous jeopardy. But it has a literal ticking clock that's meant to up the ante, and the actual time it all takes feels like nearly twice what's shown.

Still, if I believe myself and the ratings I gave the last few Mission: Impossible films (and I'd like to think I can), this indeed is the best of the franchise. I wish I could remember them all better, but I can say I definitely enjoyed this one. Smarter than most action fare, coming off more intense and more real (while being playful about the moments it's not realistic), Mission: Impossible -- Fallout is a fun ride. I give it a B+.