'Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation' review

"The syndicate is real: a Rogue Nation trained to do what we do."

Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation is the fifth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise that once again follows Tom Cruise's now iconic Ethan Hunt once again entangled in complex espionage plot and must work harder than he ever has to thwart the threat to international security.

Rogue Nation delivers more slick, refined action scenes in line with III and IV.

Ethan Hunt and the team are up against, as Simon Pegg so aptly describes it in the trailer, the "Anti-IMF" through a mysterious organisation known as the Syndicate. Without delving too much into story spoilers, the premise allows the film sometimes feels like a constant escalation between the two parties to outsmart one another. Indeed, it was rather reminiscent of a rivalry such as Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, and it was fascinating to watch it play out.  The action was creative, slick, well choreographed and spectacularly shot, with a plethora of heart pounding sequences to enjoy. Anyone who feared that the trailers completely spoiled the film's most crucial action scenes when they highlighted Tom Cruise clinging for his life on the side of a plane may lay their fears to rest.  Rogue Nation actually manages to continuously escalate until the climax. The bike chase was a particularly thrilling highlight, especially when viewed with the IMAX format, but there are plenty of scenes to choose from.   

Simon Pegg is once again an utter delight to watch on screen.

Rogue Nation utilizes a very familiar cast list, which is a relief as the franchise has a tendency to change significant portions of its cast with each new installment. However, reuniting with Tom Cruise this time are Simon Pegg's Benji, Jeremy Renner's Brandt and Ving Rhames' Luther. Seeing these three fantastic characters return really works to the favour of the film, as they all have wonderful chemistry with Cruise, and by allowing the audience to be with familiar faces, it let's you focus more on the plot and action rather than getting to know an entirely new team. This is to no detriment of the new additions, however; Rebecca Ferguson and Alec Baldwin are both welcome additions to the cast and fit right in with their interesting characters. The stand outs of the film are really Cruise and Pegg, though. Cruise is always a delight to watch in action films, as you can really see him pour everything he's got into making the action on screen believable. It's hard not to admire his dedication to the franchise with each new installment. On the other hand, this film follows in the footsteps of Ghost Protocol and allows Pegg to shine and presents more of his wonderful and hilarious chemistry with Cruise. He's an utter delight to watch as always, and I hope he remains a staple of the franchise throughout future sequels as well. 

Rogue Nation represents the franchise at its best. 

Rogue Nation doesn't bring a lot to the table that we haven't already seen done expertly in III and Ghost Protocol. But it does provide more of what we loved so much from those films, and continues to refine and perfect the Mission: Impossible formula in pretty much every way which results in one of the most enjoyable films of the summer. It could have benefited from a demanding villainous presence not unlike that of Philip Seymour Hoffman in the third installment, or showing off some creative new tech for the team to use like the raid on the Kremlin in the fourth, but it provides more than enough reasons for a return to the franchise, with spectacular action, a delightful cast and a fun story.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation  -  8 / 10

Inside Out review

'Do you ever look at someone and wonder what is going on inside their head?'

Inside Out is the latest feature from the brilliantly talented Pixar Studios. The premise is simply an exploration of the human mind, but in a cute, cuddly, family friendly sort of way. We see five characters resembling key emotions: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear. They basically control our actions through our day to day life. That's about as far into the story of the film as this review is going to go, because I really think the less you know about it, the more fun you're going to have with it. If you really need to see how this premise works in action, check out this pretty much spoiler free trailer that Pixar released for the film months ago.

From left to right: Sadness, Anger (Front), Fear (Behind), Disgust and Joy.

This incredible premise was always really exciting to me, because it's something fresh and unique and it allows Pixar to do what they do best: world-building. When I consider some of the most enjoyable moments from Pixar films, scenes where they allow themselves to play with these exciting new worlds they've created always manage to rank high. Whether it's concepts like the staff meeting between the toys in Toy Story, or the idea that there's a scare-floor where monsters scare children to create electricity in Monsters, Inc., Pixar are always throwing some creative ideas at the screen to really sell and populate their worlds. This isn't really something they've allowed themselves to do in a while with so many sequels and films focusing on the human world such as Brave, that it really feels like a return to form to see Pixar get so creative in building this world. There are so many fantastic concepts that they bring to the film when exploring the mind of the human protagonist, Riley, that I was having a blast just enjoying them even if the film didn't already have a stellar story and charismatic cast. 

Pixar do a spectacular job of making you emotionally attached to Riley.

But luckily, as all Pixar classics usually do, they don't just stop at creating and building this fascinating and exciting universe, but they also write equally interesting characters and an extremely personal and relatable story for them to become tangled up in. I loved every single one of the emotions. I was scared that at least one of them would end up being useless or annoying, especially given that they sound so monotonous from the premise, but I really enjoyed all their characters and felt attached to them all. I won't spoil anything these characters do exactly, but I'll just say I felt emotionally attached to their need to do the best they can for their human, Riley, and every single one of them had a few funny moments, especially Anger. And speaking of Riley, I was also really surprised how attached Pixar managed to make me to her and her dilemmas in the film. I began to feel as protective of her as her own emotions were, which is a huge testament to the storytelling techniques Pixar displays here. Riley could have easily become a sidelined afterthought character when compared to the emotions, but luckily she gets the attention she deserves. 

Inside Out will undoubtedly stand strong among Pixar's finest work. 

Inside Out simply oozes the standard high class creativity that Pixar have so successfully utilized time and time again on every level you look at it. Longtime Pixar collaborator Michael Giacchino delivers another unique score that really enhances the action on screen. The art design is utterly fantastic, especially during scenes that take place in Riley's mind. The script is fantastic and hits comedic beats marvelously whilst also not being afraid to delve into more dramatic and emotional material. And perhaps most importantly, Pixar manage to deliver the smartest summer blockbuster I imagine we're going to get in 2015, as well as one of the smartest family films in recent memory. Inside Out was an absolute Joy to witness, and there's no need to Fear that you'll have any bouts of Disgust or Anger when you see it (although you might want to keep an eye on Sadness)!

Inside Out  -  10 / 10

'Ant-Man' review

"Imagine a soldier the size of an insect..."

Ant-Man is the twelfth movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the climax of their second phase of movie (an honor originally reserved for Age of Ultron before Marvel reshuffled their schedule). The film follows recently released convict Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) trying to reenter society and become part of his daughter's life once again. A series of events leaves him entangled with an elderly Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), who recruits him to take on the mantle of  the Ant-Man to stop a catastrophic event from occurring.

Ant-Man meets his new ally.

The premise is simple enough, and hearkens back to the days of the first Iron Man movie, where these films weren't so busy establishing infinity stones and teaming up Avengers and actually felt like the most standalone Marvel film in quite sometime besides perhaps Guardians of the Galaxy (but even GOTG had Thanos and his infinity gems as a portion of the story). The story shrinks in scale from 2015's other Marvel offering, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and offers a more personal and less convoluted story. In somewhat of a similar move to Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man uses humour as a method to sell this abnormal, unknown, strange character to the audience, and it once again works. There aren't as many laugh-out-loud jokes in here as there were in Guardians, but the film still manages to deliver quite a few laughs throughout, especially with Paul Rudd as the leading man. 

Paul Rudd is likable, charming and funny as Scott Lang.

Rudd not only manages to sell the humour, as you'd expect from someone so rooted into a comedic background, but he's also convincing as a good guy in a bad situation. His likability makes it satisfying to see his character redeem himself, especially when Rudd is so convincing with his character's wish to be more present in his daughter's life. I feel like an extra scene between Scott Lang and his daughter would have really been beneficial to sell their relationship, but the film does a solid job of setting them up and making you care albeit minorly for Lang's desire to be with his daughter. Michael Douglas and Evangeline Lilly are both fantastic in their roles as Hank Pym and Hope Van Dyne respectively, with them sharing a great father-daughter chemistry and nailing both the drama and comedy. Corey Stoll is adequate as Darren Cross, also known as Yellowjacket, but the script doesn't really give him much to work with. Indeed, the Marvel Cinematic Universe have their latest in a long line of two-dimensional villains here, but in all fairness he is a lot more interesting than the likes of Malekith (Thor: The Dark World) and Whiplash (Iron Man 2). The other actor worth mentioning is Michael Peña, who steals his fair share of scenes as comedic relief character Luis. He manages to do it just right: funny enough to be one of the most memorable characters of the film without being so in your face they become annoying within two minutes of being introduced to them (I'm looking at you, Kat Dennings in Thor). 

Scenes involving Ant-Man and Yellowjacket battling are visually stunning.

Ant-Man stirred up some controversy when acclaimed director Edgar Wright left and was replaced with Peyton Reed. Many people who were looking forward to the stunning humour and visual style Wright provides his movies were left disappointed. However, you can still feel that the skeleton of this movie is very much one of Wright's origins. The pacing, tone, humour and visual style all feel like they came from his original ideas for the film, and while the film naturally doesn't feel exactly like an Edgar Wright film, it's still definitely a nice addition to feel his touch on it. New director Reed does a pretty fantastic job and blending what I assume was content from Wright's original draft and merging it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe pretty seamlessly and without it feeling forced. This is especially evident in the film's stunning visual style. It doesn't feel as completely out there as some of Wright's films and definitely feels like a part of the Marvel universe, but it also feels separate in a strange way that allows it to stand apart from the rest. This is undoubtedly benefiting from the use of macro-photography which gives the audience an interesting look into Ant-Man's perspective of the world when he is miniature. The action in this film looks utterly fantastic too. Seeing Ant-Man clash against central villain Yellowjacket is a visual treat, and their unique powers lends themselves to some stunningly creative ideas. In fact, the only Wright-ish aspect of Ant-Man I feel Peyton Reed struggles with is it's pace. The film speeds along at a mile a minute, and sometimes it feels like it could benefit from slowing down and focusing on one or two things a little more or including an additional scene to flesh out some characters. That being said, it's not a major problem, and I'm grateful that the film is slightly too fast rather than dragging along.

Overall, Ant-Man is a more than worthy entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's impossible to avoid thinking what the film could have been should Edgar Wright have still been attached, despite how unfair it may be. Peyton Reed still does a fantastic job but stumbles here or there at aspects of the film that feel like Wright introduced and he would have handled well. It would be interesting to see what Reed could do with a film built from the ground up that plays to his strengths a little more, and hopefully one day we can see that should a sequel ever happen. But as it stands, Ant-Man is far from the disaster anybody expected, and is an incredibly fun superhero / heist film with only some minor pacing and character development issues holding it back from the true greats of the Marvel movies. 

Ant-Man  -  8 / 10