Mission Impossible-Heels Nation

I am not a big fan of any of the Mission: Impossible movies. I also think that Tom Cruise is getting a little long in the tooth to continue making action movies. (Only a select few stars, such as Sylvester Stallone and Liam Neeson, can convince me of their action heroics in an older age). Every movie I have seen from screenwriter and director Christopher McQuarrie has produced a lukewarm response in me, at best. All of these factors combined to leave me with relatively low expectations for this installment of the Tom Cruise franchise. But Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation far exceeded my, albeit low, expectations.
This time around, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the rest of the IMF (which seems comprised entirely of Ving Rhams as Luther Stickell, Simon
By this, I do not mean the twists and turns of the plot itself, but rather the outcome. More than in most action films, Mission: Impossible-Rogue Nation (and its predecessors) never makes viewers wonder, I mean really wonder, if the heroes will triumph. This issue seems more egregious in light of a strong point of McQuarrie’s writing, namely that he attempts to up the realism and stakes by referencing past actions from other movies in the series. This works since actions now have consequences. He also dissolves the IMF (again), in an effort to make the circumstances direr. Moviegoers never believe it, though, because it all feels hollow and non-threatening. Hunt and his crew have easily overcome numerous such threats before. In order to combat this perennial downfall, the series almost needs to kill off a major character to make the audience invest more in the action onscreen. Sadly, since the films return so few characters, Ving Rhames’ Luther represents the best option. Killing Luther would provide some much needed gravitas and emotional attachment to the series, or at least the next