While walking out of the theater after seeing the movie, I overheard a conversation in Tamil. "This movie is like a Tamil movie." I found the statement almost to the mark on one point. Ethan Hunt(Tom Cruise) does the impossible. I am not referring to the impossible nature of the mission, but to the impossible feats, he does to accomplish his impossible mission. Nothing happens to him. Ethan gets from the ground intact after being hit by a car while he is riding fast on a motorbike. He hangs under the old lift that rides all the way up to the top of Tate Modern chimney. Ethan survives not only a helicopter crash but also another helicopter ramming into his crashed helicopter. If these aren't enough, he should see what he accomplishes in the 15 minutes of the climax. It felt like an eternity. Then who am I to question the cinematic time?
The latest installment in Mission Impossible series is an action movie. To thoroughly enjoy an action movie, you have to suspend disbelief. If there are two criteria for a good action movie, then they are the absurdity of the action and the choreography. Fallout score on both these accounts. It stretches the imagination to deliver the jaw-dropping stunts aided by the right photographic techniques. The photography involves a lot of low angle shots. Recently, we had seen similar shots in Spider-man: Homecoming. The low angle shots make the actors look small and the background so vast and empowering. Then, you wonder the perils of the situation although how they overcome these require us to suspend disbelief. Even in the aerial shots, the low angle shots are utilized especially the aerial stunts over Paris, the chase over the London rooftops and climatic helicopter fight in New Zealand which poses as Kashmir.
The action is the major highlight of Fallout. It is also the longest movie in the series. So you feel the action never ends. It is not the long drawn action sequences that wear you out. Ethan's backstory does that job. When there is a break to action, Ethan's perspective gets the going into high emotional gear. It helps as a better comic relief than the banter between Luther(Ving Rhames) and Benji(Simon Pegg). The women in Ethan's life is back. Ilsa played by Rebecca Ferguson continues with her Femme Fatale avatar but is not as impressive as her first appearance. Michelle Monaghan is back as Julia. Alec Baldwin and Angela Bassett are also there in their ambiguous roles of detractors or protectors of Ethan Hunt. Sean Harris reprises his role as Solomon Lane. The person who falls short is Henry Cavill as August Walker who has to keep a close eye on Ethan. Unfortunately, he pales before the regular cast. When he does not scale up, you really miss Jeremy Renner. He was the only one who could stand up to the regular cast. Sadly, he is not there because of scheduling conflicts with Avengers: Infinity War. Net effect. The audience is the loser. No William Brandt in Fallout and no Hawkeye in Infinity War.
At the end of the day, Christopher McQuarrie has given us a great action movie. Judging visually, it is a treat. There are a lot of components blending to making this movie a visual treat. Stunts, CGI, Photography, to name a few. But the film delivers what a summer movie has to. Entertainment.
To come back to the conversation in Tamil. All movies have become like a Tamil movie. Look at the action franchises like Fast and Furious, Mission Impossible, Pirates, Transformers. All of them have massive doses of exaggeration. Still, these movies are different from the Tamil movies because of the budget and creativity involved. Creativity is a funny word as it all about senselessness when it comes to such movies. So rather than complaining, just go with the flow. Sit back and enjoy.
If you are an action lover, don't miss it.
Language: English
Genre: Action
Rating: ***
interesting movie review with beautiful story telling
ReplyDelete