Mission Impossible Rogue Nation – Tom Cruise still going strong 

After a long hiatus, Ethan is back, with a bang.

Continuing the story set about in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Ethan and his team was on their own again, this time facing an even bigger challenge and a more dangerous villain. Unlike previous movies, where he only had to deal with one baddie, or at most one baddie and his gang, this time they had to fight against a whole organization, with far more substantial strength, resources and connections. Moreover, this time, the battle heads home, since the organization has infiltrated even the famed IMF.

Adding to the drama is the fact that the entire IMF had been shut down, meaning Ethan was cut off from the backing and intelligence that he used to enjoy and which normally helped him quite a lot in identifying the targets. Fortunately for him, this time he had help from an insider, a triple agent who was coincidentally a very beautiful woman with code name Ilsa, played by the Swedish Rebecca Ferguson. Not a very famous actress, but she really could act, and she did the action scenes pretty well. There was no hot scene, though, for our main action hero was too busy chasing the baddies that he had no time to romp about and do monkey business, so sorry if you are disappointed in that area 🙂

Although he looked much older than the first time he appeared as Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise has definitely aged well, and still look very groomed and ruggedly handsome in a heart melting manner. And his physique was exceptionally well maintained, allowing him to still do the dangerous stunts without engaging a body double. He does not have to, but the fact that his professionalism makes him do those scenes himself is even more of a pulling factor that attracts people to the cinemas. And it’s undeniable that it’s a quite good action movie, with lots of fighting and stunning chases, peppered with plot twists and turns, which made the 2 hours pass by really quickly.

Talking about the baddie, it might be the first time that Ethan did not really hold the upper hand. His opponent was resourceful, with lots of intel, cold hearted and calculative. He had a big team of former agents, who had been well trained and tuned to his goal of becoming an invisible force to rule the world in the background. It was some kind of global mafia organization, who interfered in events to set the motions the way that would benefit them. Therefore, in order to bring them out of the shadow and stop their plan, Ethan had to intercept the motion, which put him in grave danger of being crushed under the wheel of events, and that was what made the movie exciting.

The level of CGI and actions was just enough to create excitement yet not too overwhelmed to undermine the plot. Plus, it’s cool to see Ethan back on the motorbike. Motorbikes are more vulnerable than cars, which pushes the adrenaline pump up one more level.

It’s cool to see a hot assassin, especially one who can really punch and kick and shoot to kill.

With limited resource and a small team to help, Ethan was really on his own most of the time and had to make full use of what he had on hand.

Adding to the thrill is the fact that IMF had been cancelled by CIA, and the whole gang of CIA agents were on top of every move made by Ethan and his team and were always ready to intervene and put him under locks and chains. It’s not easy fighting your own kind, and CIA agents is a totally different animal compared to those laid back Russian guys in the previous movies.

More photos of the beauty in action, not at all a typecast damsel in distress helplessly waiting for rescue as in conventional action movies.

Rebecca Ferguson plays Ilsa and Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in the motion picture ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. Credit: David James, Paramount Pictures [Via MerlinFTP Drop]

Left to right: Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt and Rebecca Ferguson plays Ilsa in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation from Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions

And the trailer to boost excitement. Well chosen scenes that capture the gist of the movie yet not revealing too much about the plot.