Mission: Impossible –Rogue Nation

Under the wings of Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible is back to take on the toughest assignment yet! With an uprising theme repercussion backing production companies’ logos, the movie literally kicked off with the prominent flight stunt scene, featuring Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt hanging onto the outside of an airplane as it ascends! So, how did the journey go?

The writing was good. Christopher McQuarrie has penned a rather simple plot that would eventually stuff the hero through various inconceivable hurdles and stakes. CIA has decided to terminate IMF due to its numerous preposterous operations handling in the past. Ethan Hunt is a fugitive now, but he's not done without finding out who's behind the Syndicate; the organization responsible for countless global disasters! The Impossible Missions Force is in its major To-Do List as well!

There's a scene in the beginning, where Ethan would be trapped in a gas chamber, left to die by Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). In the climax, you would see the same occurrence in reverse, except for the ‘left to die’ part. Lane’s Syndicate movement needed money as a fuel for continuity, hence the entire showdown. The climax game was riveting, arrest and shooting illusions were genuinely surprising plus Ethan turning himself into the pen drive with every single bank account information memorized in order to flee was an instance of clever writing!

Rebecca Ferguson was a stellar addition to this team! Ving Rhames finally played his Luther part alongside Benji (Simon Pegg)! His banter with Jeremy Renner's Brandt was nice. As far as the actions are concerned, Ethan climbing up pillar to escape, non-stop automobile chases with backward trails and somersaults, crane platform up and down lift supporting a tight brawl above it, specific tempo for attack and the stare silence before an eventual final shootout were pulsating to say the least! Well-choreographed, all of them!

Every great Mission: Impossible film comes equipped with an iconic trademark mission, and the underwater profile-swapping task was the pinnacle of this action flick! In order to ensure Benji passes the body motion scan test prior to retrieving the ledger file stored in a secured power station, Ethan Hunt has to dive to the bottom of a water securement turbine through a column, change the preprogrammed profile card at slot 108 with a new one and exit. What could be hard or impossible about this, one may ask. Well, Ethan has to pull it all off before Benji steps into the test area, in 3 minutes! No oxygen supply could be brought along, therefore Hunt has to hold his breath for the entire duration! It all became haywire after he was struck by a moving strut while swapping the cards! Both the original and fake one jumbled up in the process, leaving Ethan to struggle a reach towards. He has to punch in the right profile card. Benji's at the test area already. Water current has suddenly increased! Time’s running out, draining Ethan's oxygen level with it too! What would have happened next? Find out yourself. This entire sequence was shot with near perfection! No background score was added and that silence in water quadrupled the tension! Robert Elswit’s camera was enjoying a leeway, navigating between Ethan, the cards, oxygen level and water current!

Just like in Ghost Protocol, the amount of tech galore here was fascinating! We could only wish for the Paper Book Turned Monitor, Phonograph Messenger, Transparent Keylock Snapper, Saxophone Rifle, Mirror Handprint Activated Car Door, Oxygen Level Pad Indicator and Eye Lens Video Cam to exist for real! But unlike in the predecessor, we've got a formidable villain in Rogue Nation! Sean Harris' presence alone was imposing and intimidating! His face and voice can give nightmares to many! There was a clear motivation as to why he was doing what he was doing, and he directly proved a tough obstacle for our protagonist.

Ethan Hunt escaping accidents, shootings and fatal mishaps without a single scratch was honestly pushing the envelope beyond its limits. There were some uncertainties as far as the plotting went, such as how a ledger file thumb drive heavily encrypted with three stages of information decoding could be easily multiplied into another or several copies and how could Atlee (Simon McBurney) even possibly know Ilsa would place the flash stick on the bench newspaper in order for him to secretly erase the data inside it later through a handphone underneath. Last but not least, maybe Halo 5 product placement wasn't intentional, who knows?