Mission Impossible Rogue Nation

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation directed by Christopher McQuarrie, starring Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Ferguson, and Ving Rhames.

This is easily the best Mission Impossible movie in the franchise.  It shouldn't be because normally as movies get further in the sequel syndrome they become worse and worse until they become a shadow of their original self.  Rogue Nation completely breaks that mold as it presents one of the most action packed and stunt ridden movies in the series.


Christopher McQaurrie has become a better action director than I would have given him credit for and a person who has channeled the Tom Cruise persona to perfection with this movie and Jack Reacher.  He never let the action scenes or story line get to ahead of him in this movie and kept the focus of everything on characters.  The characters really blend well into the action scenes without become over shadowed by them.  This is the one movie that has a well rounded ensemble cast and where Cruise isn't the focal point of the movie but the other characters around him completely help the story line along.  Rebecca Furguson does a marvelous job opposite Cruise.  She is essentially the female version of Cruise's character in this movie, the movie doesn't shy away from this fact, nor does it treat her as a women or exploit her sexually or romantically.  She is in all ways equal to every male in this movie who have had the same type of training.  This in alone of itself a brave thing this movie does as Hollywood still hasn't figured out how to write women roles without the cliches attached to them. 

The pacing of this movie is manic and insane but never once does it seem to strain from the next action scene to the next action scene, which in and of itself is simply amazing.  Easily one of the better action movies I've seen. Michael Bay could take some notes from this on building characters around the action scenes versus the other way around.   At times this movie plays out like a musical only instead of random musical numbers the audience is treated to actions scenes and of those there are plenty but it never seems bogged down by those scenes. 

Stand out scene is clearly the opera house scene.  One of the best action scenes to be filmed and it completely lives up the hype I've read about it.  Hitchcock would have been proud of it as it has touches of him throughout but doesn't have the same type of feel as watching Tarantino ripe off people shot for shot.  This one feels wholly original but with touches of Hitchcock.      

Jumper

Jumper directed by Doug Liman, starring Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rooker, and Diane Lane.

I hadn't seen this film since it first came out in 2008.  I remember liking it at the time and I've got to say time has been very kind to this film.  I don't think it's aged all that bad. 

It is by no means a perfect film.  Some of the things story line wise need to be answered along with some character motivations both on the good guy and bad guy side that didn't make a lot sense and needed some more perspective - doing this would have made the characters a lot more believable and the story line flow even better. 

But despite these few flaws what I did like about this movie is that it broke from the normal cliched version of super hero story lines by presenting a character who uses his power for selfish reasons instead of noble, heroic reasons.  This did make for a refreshing break from a typical superhero story and made the main character a lot more relate able.  Another thing, this movie has a perfect run time of just over an hour and half - not to long nor to short and by the end of the movie it leaves a feeling of wanting more.  I've got to say this again, as I've said before, Jamie Bell is a really good actor.  When his characters finally shows up in the movie, in full force, he brings an energy and enthusiasm to the movie that was previously lacking.  His character is wholeheartedly interesting - even more so than the main character and Jamie Bell seems to be having a ball playing him.  Every scene he isn't in after he fully arrives the film seems lacking with intensity - such is the nature of his ability.

A good movie worth seeing more than once.   

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials directed by Wes Ball, starring Dylan O'Brien, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Dexter Darden, Rosa Salazar, Patricia Clarkson, and Aidian Gillen. 

Not as good as the first movie and they main reason because of this is that the movie doesn't even attempt to answer very many questions from the first movie.  Near the end of this movie some answers are given but by that time it really is to little to late because up until that point nothing has been done to further any kind of character development or story.  It didn't seem as if the movie even cared about any of that, so I didn't really care about the movie either as I fed off of it's own not caring.  

This movie is basically one long chase movie (not anywhere the level of perfection that Mad Max Fury Road made with the same type of premise) with lots of shots of people moving from one place to another.  It felt like a cliff notes version of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies.  Gone is the fast paced interesting scenario of the first film and in its place is lots of running, pacing that borders on manic, characters are developed as if in a Michael Bay movie, and lots people acting stupid for no other reason than to set up the more fast paced/manic situations dictated by stupid people.  This is a sad thing because the first film was unsuspectingly good.