Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

The Mission: Impossible series finally runs out of steam with this overlong and often superfluous entry, as writer/director Christopher McQuarrie offers up a rather forgettable narrative that’s perpetuated by an atypically bland villain and a surfeit of disappointing action interludes. The needlessly convoluted storyline follows Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt as he attempts to take down a rogue terrorist organization known as the Syndicate, with Hunt’s continuing efforts both helped and hindered by Rebecca Ferguson’s mysterious Ilsa Faust. There’s little doubt that Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation gets off to an impressively engrossing start, as McQuarrie opens the proceedings with a thrilling sequence that sees Hunt clinging to the outside of an ascending airplane. From there, however, the film morphs into a disappointingly by-the-numbers actioner devoid of compelling attributes – with the been-there-done-that vibe amplified by an almost total absence of interesting, three-dimensional supporting characters. (Ferguson’s boring turn as the movie’s femme fatale is nothing compared to Sean Harris’ almost astonishingly one-note portrayal of villain Solomon Lane.) The lack of momentum reaches a head as Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation limps into its climactic stretch, with the buildup to and execution of the padded-out, unusually tedious third act ensuring that the film concludes on as underwhelming a note as one could envision – which does confirm the picture’s place as a rushed and half-baked entry within an otherwise stellar franchise.

** out of ****