Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

The fifth and only installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise I've ever seen, Rouge Nation is fun, interesting, and funny, which is what sets it apart from its ultra convoluted and dull counterparts (James Bond/Jason Borne). Granted, I've never seen a James Bond movie and I'm pretty sure I've only watched one Jason Borne movie and I may have fallen asleep in the middle of it. Regardless, I don't need to see these other movie franchises to know I won't like them. The main reason I saw Rouge Nation in theaters (twice), was because the trailer I saw 1. highlighted the bomb-ass stunts Tom Cruise was pulling and 2. had Simon Pegg in it and, therefore, was funny. As an avid fan of Simon Pegg I was like "yeah, I would probably see that if I got the chance" but I wasn't about to go out of my way to see this movie because I'm not a fan of the spy movie genre, and luckily, I got the chance to see it. I usually find spy movies super boring, which is ironic because its action-y and thrilling and full of car chases and fight scenes. Nonstop gun fights and confusing plot-lines just aren't up my alley, crazy right? But for a few very obvious reasons, and in some very obvious ways, Rouge Nation diverts from what I believe to be the typical spy story line and it surprised me how much I liked it.

Another fact of my life that probably disqualifies my opinion on this movie is that the only other Tom Cruise movie I've seen is Edge of Tomorrow, which I loved (super entertaining 10/10 watch it)! Ironically, the same director from Edge of Tomorrow, Christopher McQuarrie, also directed Rouge Nation, and of course, my brain goes "yes, duh, that makes sense" as if the universal rule if you like one movie from a director is that you will like all of them, obviously. However, even though it isn't really that difficult to get me on board with really any Action/Science Fiction movie, especially if it involves any version of time travel, like I aforementioned, it is very difficult to get me invested in a spy movie. Rouge Nation fit the bill of what I would consider to be the perfect formula for an interesting, stand-out spy movie.

1. STUNTS!
   Obviously. Tom Cruise hung off the side a giant cargo jet while it was flying in the air like he was a leaf that accidentally got caught on a hinge or something. The movie just starts out with this high energy scene, and when Tom Cruise makes his entrance into the scene, he just jumps onto the plane like it's nothing. Also, because I watch late night television, I know that he actually drove the car for the car chase scene in Morocco, and if you've watched the car chase scene in Morocco you'll know how impressive that is, especially when the actors don't have to do it. They could totally just watch the stunt men almost kill themselves. Tom Cruise kicked ass in everything he did in this movie it was all so badass, and he was badass in Edge of Tomorrow but in Rouge Nation, he makes it look so effortless it's incredible. I was so impressed with him I thought to myself "OK yes I see the big deal with Tom Cruise. I get it" and now I'm planning on watching his earlier stuff and hopefully I will be as impressed with him as I was in Rouge Nation.
2. Ilsa
   The main thing I know about James Bond is that every/every other movie there is another "Bond girl" and that is strictly a James Bond thing. Chances are there have been other women in the Mission: Impossible universe, and maybe they were as bad-ass as Ilsa Faust, I wouldn't know I've already admitted to my ignorance on this topic. However, Ilsa was smart, buff, independent, and does not play the damsel in distress character. It wasn't as if she started out as a love interest to Tom Cruise and then turned out to be evil, and she didn't start out evil only to become wooed by Cruises charm, and most importantly she does not die as a sacrifice for Tom Cruise, which is what I thought was going to happen. Ilsa doesn't have sex with Tom Cruise's character ever, and forget sleep with him, they don't even kiss! It's a nice hug at the end and she takes off. Sure, there is some assumed sexual tension between the two, but the fact that it never comes to fruition really made me appreciate her story line more. And yes, there are some scenes that unnecessarily sexualize her i.e. the pool scene (debatable relevance to the plot), the sexy yellow dress, she unbuttons her shirt a little before she's supposed to torture Tom Cruise--things of that nature. One thing that I really appreciated in Ilsa that bothered me about Claire from Jurassic World, is that heels were not worn when they weren't appropriate footwear for the situation. Claire was sprinting away from a goddamn T-Rex and there's even a shot of her feet highlighting the fact that she is still in her beige heels (that she's been running in the whole movie) and she's running one foot in front of the other like a supermodel from a T-Rex. I found myself in the final sequence of the movie actively looking for signs that Ilsa was wearing appropriate footwear and I'm pretty sure, whenever she knew she was going to be fighting she was never wearing heels. Last point on Ilsa is that at least five times, probably more like ten, she does this kick-ass spy move where she jumps up on bad guys necks and kills them with the power of her lady thighs and damn if that isn't the coolest physical move I've seen in any action movie ever.
3. Simon Pegg
   I made this point "Simon Pegg" and not "Comedy Components" because without Simon Pegg, Rouge Nation would not have been even half as funny as it was. Also, I probably wouldn't have seen it. I know Simon Pegg has been in the previous two Mission: Impossible movies but Rouge Nation is the only one in the series that caught my attention and, therefore, the only one that matters. As a Simon Pegg fan I probably found it funnier than it actually was, but I still know it was funny because even though I was laughing more than other people, everyone else was still laughing so I'm not weird. No one else could pull of Benji's funny lines like Simon Pegg does. If they had Jeremy Renner saying Simon Pegg's lines it wouldn't have been funny, but maybe it's just Pegg's English accent and I'm totally falling for it. I also really loved that Simon Pegg's character actually ended up being the one everyone had to save and not the woman; it really appealed to me that they were saving their collective friend as opposed to Tom Cruise's love interest. He was the comic relief in Star Trek and he did the same thing in Rouge Nation and I loved it. 
4. Plot Complexity
   This comes from being so absolutely lost when I watched that one Jason Borne movie that one time. I'm not saying Rouge Nation is simple, but it was easy enough to follow who was the bad guy, why he was the bad guy, and what he was trying to accomplish. I also found the characters story lines not too convoluted either. Although easy to follow, Rouge Nation was not necessarily predictable. You knew Tom Cruise wasn't gonna die but you weren't sure how he was going to escape death. I was caught completely by surprise in the end even though I knew they were all going to get out alive and catch the bad guy, and that's what I want from my ideal spy movie.

Mission: Impossible - Rouge Nation was so much fun; everyone I know who has seen it thought it was next level entertaining. The cast kicked ass and made the movie that much more enjoyable, I couldn't have asked for a better spy movie.
Oh! And you know what I just remembered? I've also seen A Few Good Men. Opinions validated.