I’ve seen a lot buzz about this installment of M:I. Some say it’s the franchise’s best. I’ve even seen people say it’s one of the best action movies of all time. But let’s pump the brakes a bit.
Yes, this is a kickass action movie. The set pieces are incredible, the action scenes fluid and clever. It’s fun to watch Tom Cruise do crazy things and know that he did his own stunts. But this does nothing new for the genre. It’s not pushing any boundaries or anything. It still has the same old action movie tropes and devices (Seriously, how does every action hero have impeccable aim for meaningless henchmen, but can’t hit the important bad guy?). It has the same plot structure. It’s the same familiar formula as hundreds of action movies before it, albeit on a pretty massive scale, and executed rather impressively.
I figured out the twist pretty early on, and never once throughout the movie was I nervous about the outcome. So the stakes were never very high. I know that’s strange to say for an action movie about saving the world from global destruction. There’s a difference between stakes for the characters and stakes for the audience. This is a huge franchise. They have to keep certain things intact in order to maintain the money-making machine. It just so happens that the things it has to protect are what ultimately lead to predictability.
But I guess we are supposed to just suspend thinking about these kinds of things when we watch these kinds of movies. So in that regard, Fallout is a smashing success. It’s fun popcorn entertainment. Let’s leave it at that.