Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Blu-ray Review
Brad Sturdivant
December 19th, 2015
My favorite part about the Mission Impossible franchise is that each film is so drastically different from the others. This keeps the franchise fresh and the audience on their toes as we never know what direction the chosen director is going to go in. But MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION is strikingly similar to the previous film, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL in almost every single way. The style is nearly identical, the stunts are just as insane and once again someone is trying to destroy the IMF. Since the fourth film might be my favorite, I can’t complain too much, but I was hoping we would get something completely different.
In Rogue Nation, the Impossible Mission Force is under attack on two fronts. In Washington, the director of the CIA (played by Alec Baldwin doing his best Alec Baldwin impersonation) wants the IMF shut down for being reckless and careless. In the field, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) has started an anti-IMF agency called the Syndicate and has his sights set on bringing down Ethan Hunt (Cruise). As a rogue agent, Hunt and his band of trusty agents have to bring down Solomon and convince Washington the world needs the IMF.
Each Mission Impossible film has featured at least one or two crazy stunts where the directors seemingly try to kill Tom Cruise and the fifth installment is no different. The stunt that got all the attention features Cruise hanging on an aircraft as it’s taking off and I was surprised by how meaningless the stunt was to the overall film. In fact, it was clear that someone came up with the idea to hang Cruise on the side of the aircraft and no one bothered to make it fit into the film. The underwater sequence was intense and the motorcycle chase was fun, as was watching Hunt fight his way out of captivity.
As great as Tom Cruise is, he may have been upstaged by Rebecca Ferguson, who will probably appreciate years of work thanks to her turn in Rogue Nation. The hype is much deserved as she managed to keep up with Cruise physically and hold her own in terms of acting. Simon Pegg has Benji Dunn down to a science now and it was great seeing Ving Rhames in a bigger role. The only question mark in terms of casting was Jeremy Renner. I know Paramount had high hopes for him to take over the franchise some day, but now that they’ve abandoned that notion, they should just put him out of his misery. He clearly didn’t want to be in this film and it didn’t feel like there was much of a place for him.
I always enjoy the Mission Impossible films and I’m one of Tom Cruise’s biggest fans, but something about Rogue Nation let me down. It was still a very enjoyable film, but I really wanted the filmmakers to continue the drastic direction turns that they had done with the three previous sequels. That said, there’s more than enough here to please fans of the series or fans of action movies in general.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – ROGUE NATION looks fantastic on Blu-ray
Audio: The audio was fine.
Commentary with Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie: Cruise always gives great commentaries, but this is one of his better ones. He and McQuarrie cover just about every aspect of the film and keep the commentary moving. Very enjoyable.
Lighting the Fuse (5:56): This featurette looks at the early stages of development and how they took ideas and evolved them into what we see in the film.
Cruise Control (6:32): Six minutes of Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise.
Heroes…(8:05): A closer look at the IMF team.
Cruising Altitude (8:22): Eight minutes dedicated to the insane opening stunt.
Mission: Immersible (6:44): Six minutes for the underwater sequence.
Sand Theft Auto (5:34): And five minutes for the chase sequence.
The Missions Continue (7:09): Cast and crew talk about how great the Mission Impossible franchise is.
