Since the Mission Impossible franchise is about to get it’s
sixth entry, I decided to go back and re-watch all the previous movies to
prepare for the experience of the newest movie. I decided I wanted to take the
time and rank the movies. As always, this list reflects my opinion. Enjoy:
5. Mission Impossible 2 – This is probably a no surprise for
anyone, as this is more likely at the bottom of everyone’s lists. Ironically,
this was the first Mission Impossible movie I saw all the way through, and in
theaters. Obviously one of the weaker and more unusual entries in the series,
it is very stylized and doesn’t have the same things that makes the rest of the
entries great. I have to give quick props that it does do something a bit
different than the rest of the series, while that something wasn’t very good,
it did attempt. I do really like the music in this. A crazy stunt in this is
when the bad guy tries to stab Ethan Hunt and he is millimeters from stabbing
his eye, they put a camera in the knife so they could stop it at the right
moment.
4. Mission Impossible – The one that started it all. It was
interesting going back to re-watch this and to think where the series has gone
since then. A lot of great cast members here like Emilio Estivez who is the
computer hacker at the beginning of the movie, and also Jean Reno who joins
Ethan Hunt’s team during the second half of the movie. As well, we have Jon
Voight playing Jim Phelps, and for those who don’t know, Jim Phelps was the
main character in the original, and so I think this is suppose to be him many
years later, I won’t go into too much of his character here since it does
involve giving off spoilers to the movie, but still worth a watch. One of the
big highlights is when they go to CIA Headquarters to steal the NOC list, and
Ethan Hunt is hanging off a rope and has to be very careful to not trigger any
of the alarms which is done through sound and touch. It’s funny to watch a lot
of the technology and to see some of it dated today as opposed to how we have
it now.
3. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – This and the second on
this list tend to switch on occasion as both are really good. This was directed
by Christopher McQuarrie, who directed Jack Reacher which was a big surprise in
2012. This involves the Syndicate, which is basically an Anti-IMF, and just
seeing the pieces come together and how it was formed and everyone’s
involvement and all made this great to see. This is one that I saw in theaters
opening weekend, and didn’t think highly of when I first saw it but it has
gotten better as I re-watched it over the years. Rebecca Ferguson’s character
has been a great addition to the team, and especially as I was sitting there
trying to figure out who’s side she was really on, there were moments that I
was just sitting there and second guessing it all. I also really liked the
sequence where Ethan Hunt needed to switch out the card in an underwater tank
to allow Benji to make it through without getting caught, and just how intense
that scene got, and of course we can’t forget the scene at the beginning of the
movie with Ethan Hunt hanging on the door of the airplane trying to get in. I
think the finale was very good, just how it approaches solving the problem in a
different way which has made this very intriguing, and I would say probably one
of my favorite finales in this series, it was about outsmarting the villain.
2. Mission Impossible 3 – If I am not mistaken, I think this
was JJ Abrams first attempt at directing a film, and it is very impressive. I
really like the story of Ethan Hunt having a relationship and how that drives a
lot of his decisions, and it really helps to boost his determination,
especially near the end when he needs to retrieve the Rabbit’s Foot. We did see
him fall in love in Mission Impossible 2, but this relationship felt more
genuine than that one did. Of course the biggest highlight of the movie is the
villain, portrayed by the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, if anyone in this
series won the award for best villain, it would be him. I was watching a
documentary on the DVD for this movie and he even mentioned that he didn’t see
the character as a villain…..but instead as a maniac, and Phillip Seymour
Hoffman sold that description perfectly, especially how he tells Ethan that he
is going to kill his wife right in front of him, and just how chilling that is
(honestly his portrayal as antagonists in various films, especially this, made
it very difficult to buy his portrayal as a good guy in Hunger Games Catching
Fire). I do have to bring up this, but an overlooked insane action sequence in
this movie that is crazy intense is when Ethan drops the Rabbit’s Foot on the
streets of Shanghai, and you have the cars just driving normal speed, and the
team’s van stops millimeters right in front of Ethan’s face, Tom Cruise wanted
everyone to drive the normal speed and not slow down to make it feel genuine,
talk about insanity to get a shot for a movie. This one is totally worth
checking out.
1. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol – This is my favorite
entry in the series. This was Brad Brid’s first attempt at directing live
action after directing classic animated movies like The Iron Giant and The
Incredibles, and he does a superb job. They also shot some of the sequences
using IMAX cameras, so when this arrived in theaters, I made sure I made the
effort to see this on an IMAX screen, and it was totally worth it. The most
insane stunt was to see Ethan Hunt climb the outside of one of the world’s
tallest buildings, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. They use the IMAX cameras to film
that scene, and when watching it on the IMAX screen kept me on the edge of my
seat, just making sure that he doesn’t fall off. I actually remember watching
it the first time and when Ethan is trying to cut through the glass and it fails
and pushes him back and he falls a few feet before getting a grip back on the
glass with his special gloves, I remember knocking over my drink because of how
much that shocked me and just hoping he doesn’t fall to the ground. This is my
favorite entry because of the larger than life aspect of the entire movie, and
just the adventure aspect of this movie, they go through many locations, from
the Kremlin to Dubai to Mumbai and many other locations in between. One of the
complaints I have is the villains feeling weaker than the other entries, but
the team working with each other makes up for it. However, I heard a suggestion
from a critic that the real antagonist of this movie is not the people but
instead, it’s the situations they were placed in, and you think about it, it actually makes sense, all
of their tech malfunctions on a consistent basis, and they are on the clock of
failing just about each time, until the very end, nothing really works
perfectly beforehand, honestly the situation or timing being more of the
perfect villain actually works, but of course you can’t beat a madman like
Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s character.
