After a spectacular start with Brian DePalma’s original entry, a terrible sequel by John Woo, a slightly-warmer JJ Abrams revival, and two absolutely crackerjack installments by Brad Bird and Christopher McQuarrie —
The trailer for the new Mission Impossible film is out…
My first reaction is – Wow. And Wow.
The MI films are now officially eating James Bond’s lunch when it comes to high-quality action and great locations. The Tom Cruise stuntwork is jaw-dropping as usual, with the helicopter sequence looking especially amazing. It makes the pre-title sequence for Skyfall, where Bond fights a man in a spinning chopper above a crowd of people, look rather lame and unimaginative by comparison…which it was. And while the trailer boasts a few scenic barren vistas ala Spectre, there also appears to be a tense motorcycle chase sequence through the heart of Paris. When is the last time you saw 007 in real action in a major world capital?
As always, it pains me to make these comparisons.
I’m a lifelong Bond fan and I would really like to believe that the Bond films are still the best in the spy genre. It’s just not true anymore. Not even close. Daniel Craig and the endlessly inept producers Barbara Broccoli & Michael G. Wilson have not only sapped the franchise of any real escapist joy, they have also gotten lazy with the action and cheaped-out on glamorous locations.
The last two MI’s, Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, have shamed their Bond counterparts in every possible way – as thrilling roller coaster rides in exotic locales with eye-dazzling production design. All the money is on the screen, as Cubby Broccoli used to say. The opera sequence alone from RN is the cleverest and most Bondian thing I’ve seen in any action film in the last 20 years…
Is that a beauty or what?
And with Rebecca Ferguson in a sexy dress with a high-powered rifle.
That’s a spy movie.
Meanwhile, the Bonds have degraded into ponderous, pretentious, overlong melodramas mainly about Craig’s paycheck.
Granted, this was just a trailer – we don’t know if the finished film will make good on its promise. But writer-director Chris McQuarrie delivered in spades on the last film and Cruise’s injury midway through the shoot actually gave him extra time to whip the story into shape, so my hopes are high.
Fallout does appear to have a darker, rougher edge to it – with much less of the sophistication and gadgetry of the last two entries; and the inclusion of Hunt’s forgotten wife and the villain’s personal threat to Ethan does make it feel like a Craig-like mission of revenge. (Or, even Dalton-like…as the sequence of Sean Harris’s prison transport being rammed into the water, ostensibly to be freed by his cohorts, feels lifted directly from Licence To Kill) But the truth is I’ve never really been opposed to injections of grit into the spy mythology, even some cold hard reality. I just want my hero to rise to the occasion and be a hero. Cruise has never been afraid to make his hero sweat, or get bested and beaten, but he still delivers true popcorn derring-do when the time comes.
When I first read the script for Casino Royale by Paul Haggis, I loved that he shook up the formula, gave it a fresh start. That’s what all franchises must do every once in a while. Each film has to deliver certain beats while still moving forward, having its own distinct personality. But Craig’s blank stare created a grim cipher out of Bond, left a big hole in the center of the reboot. There was an absence of personality. And the series has been stuck in a retro rut ever since, all brute posturing and static tableaus, instead of moving forward. Quantum Of Solace, even with its botched editing, is the only one of Craig’s films I actually enjoy rewatching because it feels and moves like a modern-day action movie. And yet it includes some of the darkest 007 material I’ve ever seen.
It’s all in the execution.
If McQuarrie goes a little more rough-and-tumble this time, gives the gadgets a rest, and finds some new emotional depth, so be it. Just as long as you give us a great piece of entertainment. Keep it moving. Make it exciting.
From the looks of it, that’s exactly what the audience is going to get.
Plus, Rebecca Ferguson.
I can’t wait.
