Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Angela Bassett, Vanessa Kirby, Michell Monaghan, Alec Baldwin, Wes Bentley, Frederick Schmidt, Liang Yang, Kristopher Joner, Wolf Blitzer.
The more the series goes, the bolder, more intricate, daring, it arguably gets, if played out right, the ideas keep coming, the bond between the actors grows stronger and like a team that has ascended the same mountain range every year, the more sure-footed they become, the more trust there is between the cast. In Mission Impossible: Fallout that trust not only shows, it is indomitable, even with the new addition of the excellent Henry Cavill coming into the series as the C.I.A. hitman and enforcer August Walker.
Some film series have a habit of outstaying their welcome, a couple of films and the rot appears, the damage of inconsistency, of the ever-changing roster and perhaps too much focus on one particular character makes the succession of films become a chore for all but the more die-hard fans. It is in this settling malaise that the fortune of the run of films slows down, corrodes and eventually stops; normally outstaying its welcome by at least a couple of episodes.
Not so with the Mission Impossible series, and certainly not since Ghost Protocol, whereas the two immediate sequels found a way to lose the charm and guts of the original film, since then the action has been more demanding, the desire more keenly felt and in Fallout, the tentative seeds shown with the relationship between Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and the outstanding Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, the effervescent Michelle Monaghan in her return as Julia, and in the new character of the White Widow, played with exacting cool and style by Britain’s Vanessa Kirby, are connections that the viewer can be intrigued by.
It is though in the antagonist Solomon Lane in which the series and Hunt has their own Moriarty like figure, a man Hell bent on destruction, of personal anarchic completion and bringing down the world that he sees as, arguably correctly, one that is corrupt, fraudulent and diseased.
Sean Harris characterisation and feel for the insanity in the mind of Solomon Lane is outstanding, it is arguably in the same league as Jarad Harris or Paul Anderson’s violent Sebastian Moran in the Guy Ritchie adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
A criminal for the age should reflect the hero perfectly, from their flaws and perhaps the advancement of age and doubt, it is why The Joker in the hands of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger worked so well against Michael Keaton and Christian Bale; it is the reflection of the flaw, the mirror that is cracked as both sides push against each other’s tenacity and belief; that is the satisfying beauty of the two parts and in Sean Harris and Tom Cruise, that mirror, that reflection is combustible, brutal and astonishing.
A terrifically satisfying sequel, Mission Impossible: Fallout is a pleasure that cannot be contained.
Ian D. Hall