Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, Mini Movie Review

Movie Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Wow, wow, wow.

I LOVE Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, the 5th Mission Impossible movie in the series.  My family loves it.  I've seen it twice and can easily see it again.  My Grandfather has seen it three times and is ready to see it a forth, which he requested yesterday.

Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise, is an IMF agent trying to prove the Syndicate's existence, an expert shadow terrorist organization.  Ethan is close, but is quickly foiled when Europe is compromised and he's captured.  I know this isn't a thorough plot teaser, but the less you know, the better your movie viewing experience will be.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is a beautiful balance between crescendo and diminuendo.  Humor and tenseness.  Build up and release.  The opening sequence is just brilliant.  I'm laughing and enjoying, freaked out at the suspense, and wondering, "This is how you start a movie?!  Throw in a fantastic action sequence at the get go?  How do you follow up?"  But follow up they do.  Each moment of suspense unique to its situation.

Really, this is a well balanced movie with tight plot and great cast.  Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and Ving Rhames all have great chemistry together.  New to the series Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust is a great addition.  She's such a strong, interesting character, and easily Ethan's match in every way.

This is the great Summer flick I've been waiting for.  My favorite movie of the year.

When is Mission Impossible 6 coming out?  I'm ready.

Rated PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, and brief partial nudity.

Check Parent Guide and movie content here. 

Edge of Tomorrow, Movie Revew

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Edge of Tomorrow starts on a somber note.  We are treated to news report visuals, highlighting a 5 year alien attack on Earth.  Europe turned red in a wave.  The footage is a little jarring, but effective, as we are led, not really told, into Cage's (Tom Cruise) story.  He's pompous and arrogant, a first class jerk, selling the American public and World the idea of joining a fight he refuses to take part.  He's successful. Many people enlist.  But this success isn't enough to keep Cage out of the fight.

There was a major victory at Verdun, thanks to Rita (Emily Blunt), the new face of the war.  Her image plastered everywhere.  A hero.  This success encourages the military to launch Operation Downfall, a full assault on the alien Mimics in Europe, where everyone fighting will wear mechanic exoskeletons to aid the fight.  Cage is ordered to the front lines to cover the first wave, but he refuses, and then blackmails the General.  Not smart.  Soon Cage is thrust to the front lines where time will begin to repeat itself, caught in a loop, reliving the same day over and over again every time he dies.

Okay, I think I just made this movie sound kinda lame.

Edge of Tomorrow isn't lame at all, but extremely well written, intelligent, fast paced, action packed with a great balance of humor, none of which I was expecting.  And the aliens in this movie are really quite interesting.

Oh, and can I mention how awesome Emily Blunt is in this movie!?  There, I've mentioned it.  And I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan at all, but I really like him in this role.

The movie's trailer gave me the initial feeling of lament, capitalizing on the loop theme of Edge of Tomorrow.  "Live. Die. Repeat" is Edge's tag line.  The trailer portrays the film as stark serious and repetitive. A darker side to Groundhog Day and Source Code with an alien invasion theme.  We've seen it all before, haven't we?  The trailer seems unoriginal, but this is further from the truth.  The marketing campaign for this movie was all wrong!  Instead the trailer should have showed us cocky Cage before the battle, and then scenes of fighting mixed with quips of humor, separating Edge of Tomorrow from the pack.  I'm afraid the poor marketing has buried a fun action fun, sense it came behind The Fault in Our Stars and Maleficent last weekend.

The pacing seemed a little slow getting into the movie, but it's when the looping starts that Edge becomes really interesting.

Really pay attention during the last five minutes of the movie!  I missed a little information at the end, leaving me a little confused.  (I'm a visual thinker, not auditory, so when I'm visually thinking about something I miss auditory clues.  I had to ask family members some of the ending details because it's given in a news report.)  Also, not everything that happens at the end is completely explained, but my brothers came up with a great theory as to why a certain thing happened, and I totally buy it.  I can't spell it out here because I'll spoil the ending!

I honestly have some mixed feelings over the ending, though my family loved the way it all tied up

Also, don't bother with the 3D.  I don't think it added much.

Overall Edge of Tomorrow is a great Summer blockbuster that lovers of speculative fiction will enjoy.

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and brief suggestive material.

Oblivion: Movie Review

Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5

The year is 2077.  We won the battle against an alien race named the Scavs, but in the process we lost the Earth.  They didn't take it, but our Moon was attacked, leaving a volatile planet in its wake.  Humanity has left to live in a colony on Titan, a moon orbiting Saturn, and Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) with Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) have stayed behind to repair drones as Earth's remaining resources are gathered.  Then a mysterious object falls from the sky, and Jack soon learns that not all is as it seems.  What really happened during the war?  Who really won?

Oblivion is a movie full of beautiful visuals, which is no surprise considering that director Joseph Kosinski also directed the visual splendor TRON: Legacy.  Though not as imaginative as TRON, the movie industry is ripe full of post-apocalyptic flicks, the visual effects are still stunning, and the World interesting.  That can only go so far.

I did enjoy the mystery aspect of the film and found myself quite engaged in the storytelling, but it wasn't until I got home and started playing the movie in my mind that I started seeing all the flaws.  By movies end there are holes left that I would have liked filled, and not all questions are answered or explored.  Who were the Scavs?  Though the aliens are mentioned, and play a huge role with what's going on, they get left on the wayside.  What we do see is clichéd. The drones are supposed to be hunting them, but after a couple reveals some scenes suddenly become flawed (just got in a small debate over this during dinner, but I stand by my statement.)

The acting overall was quite good, and I really enjoyed Andrea Riseborough's performance which is full of great depth.  One of the major faults of the movie is the character Julia (Olga Kurylenko), who has a strong connection to Jack.  She was majorly two-denominational, and there's a lot of flaws surrounding her in terms of plot and story.

I did enjoy the ride the movie provided, and seeing it on the big screen is worth the experience, but one viewing is good enough for me.

MPAA: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, brief strong language, and some sensuality/nudity.         

    
Okay, this is totally off topic, but thinking about TRON makes me lament the fact that Disneyland no longer has the People Mover ride.  I really miss it.