That is sublime.

 

Rogue Nation and Fallout are basically a two part movie. They're both really good although I'm not of the opinion that Fallout was The Greatest Action Movie Ever Made some were proclaiming but it is really, really, really good. Also it ties up a plot thread that has been introduced in the series in Part III (my favourite) in the third act which gives it some emotional heft that was sorely missing from Rogue Nation.

 

iii is your favorite? i only saw it once (in theater) and it seemed fat and slow compared to the prior two. it has been a long time so maybe i would think differently now...

 

Fallout was competent, but I don't understand the effusive response afforded it. The action numbed my senses, the violence over-the-top, and Henry Cavill proved once again that he has the screen presence of a block of wood.

The original (a masterclass in suspense) and Ghost Protocol (beautifully staged and realized) are still the crown jewels of the series.

 

They are quite pretentious.

 

I sort of wax and wane back and forth between Ghost Protocol and MI:III as my favourite. I'm an unabashed JJ Abrams fan, the interrogation scene with Phillip Seymor Hoffman, "It's complicated.", random shot of Tom Cruise hanging upside down in the middle of traffic, the fact finally it took 3 freakin' movies and they finally had a whole damn team doing something. But the set pieces of Ghost Protocol are a high watermark and that movie flies the most of a very flying series. However, what works for me in MI:III really well I think gives the series some heart is Michelle Monaghan as Julia, Ethan's wife and even though she is really only most prominent in that movie, her presence literally hangs over the next 3 movies.

The addition of Rebecca Fergoson as Isla in Rogue Nation and Fallout have finally added an equal foil for Hunt and they finally call back to Monaghan's Julia in Fallout which really works. Fallout I also think Cavill makes for a pretty good bad cop to Ethan's Good Cop and the finale of Fallout, while it is really really long, actually gets points because it's just an intricate clockwork of the setpiece clicking into place. I also like Rogue Nation's finale but it's a way, way smaller and intimate spy-movie ending.

But yah while the last 2 are maybe a notch under my favourites, they're still great. The 1st I like but but it still bothers me they made Phelps the bad guy. However, there is a great callback to Max the hacker from the 1st movie in the most recent film, very well done.

Then there's the 2nd movie. Two Star Trek writers worked on it! And Doves! and I Disappear!

That video is insane



But MI2 is not great really, at all, certainly isn't up to the standard of the series. It's alright in a cheesy way. And it kept Dougray Scott from being Wolverine and we got Hugh Jackman so bonus!

 

i remember thinking "this is really bad" as i was watching 2

 

Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance is pretty much the only thing III has going for it.

 

I like that it's the most personal story out of all of them for Ethan. It's really the only one of them where we get to see him outside of his work and the stakes for him personally couldn't be higher.

 

Yeah, Rogue Nation was definitely "the best" in my opinion and whilst Fallout was great I thought it tried to basically do the same thing as RN, just more -- which led to some repetition in car/motorcycle chases that I felt didn't work quite as well.

The Honest Trailer was funny, except I remembered Lane, the Syndicate, etc. just fine.

MI:2 was...

 

I've seen all of them, and I still have no idea if Ethan has a personality or not. In the last one, he seemed to be trying to develop a sense of humor, so that's a step in the right direction. A baby step, anyway.

 

The Christopher McQauirre movies, Rogue Nation and Fallout, also have something great going for them in the script that there are a lot of turns and twists inside of everyday, normal Mission Impossible scenes. Like Ethan getting his briefing in Rogue Nation that suddenly turns into a Syndicate reveal of them being all powerful and onto him is really great.

 

i got the set of six for CRUST-MASS so i will post my impressions upon watch/rewatch. if i am up for it.

in any case, i'm halfway through the first one. i don't think i've watched it since the original theatrical run. it's pretty good. i'm noticing all the depalma-y stuff now. odd to see emilio estevez in a major film. also i never forgot this sequence, which produced a raft of weird crooz facial expressions:

 

Eh, I still think Mission: Impossible (the first one) is underrated -- and probably clocks in third for me -- as whoever came up with the idea of putting Brian de Palma in charge of a M:I reboot was genius (still, by far, his highest grossing film). I still can never forgive them for the Jim Phelps bit, but he tried, from the very beginning, to make it an international, less-male, action/thriller franchise and largely succeeded...

 

He's pooping his pants in anger

 

I did a re-watch of all six films a short while back and would currently rank them thusly:

1. Rogue Nation
Best Set Piece: Opera House assassination attempt

2. Fallout/Ghost Protocol
Best Set Piece: Helicopter confrontation/Burj Khalifa gambit (respectively)

3. Mission: Impossible
Best Set Piece: Langley infiltration

4. MI 2
Best Set Piece: Motorcycle chase

5. MI III
Best Set Piece: Bridge ambush

 

I just think that 2 is total trash, even with the John Woo pedigree...

 

i finished the first one. i think my favorite bits are the failed first "mission" (i seem to like to see things go wrong in movies) and the way the scene was handled where crooz is working through how phelps masterminded the failure as he speaks to him. really effective.

the end action stuff is dumb. the bit where crooz pretends to be phelps and pulls the mask off, and then the real phelps steps out of a closet or something right after. what were you doing in the closet, dum-dum? waiting to see if your wife would fall for it? maybe so, i dunno.

also the helicopter blades coming close to his face...ugh. get it out of here.

mi:dos is next. not looking forward to it, but luckily i will have to delay watching it for a whole week, as i'll be out of town! yaaaaaayyyyyy!

 

I think you'll like Ghost Protocol, once you get to it. It's the most straightforward of the movies, although there is one development I couldn't figure why it happened.

Spoiler

Why the villain posed as his henchman to get the codes instead of sending the real henchman.

 

i've actually seen 1 - 4 before, but only have vague positive or negative notions regarding each. ghost protocol i remember being impressed by.

 

noted, though it was the scenario i was responding to, not the visual effects.