Mission: Impossible - Fallout ★★★★★

After a couple of duds in the series, Mission: Impossible - Fallout comes back swinging, with the record for the most amount of times I stared at my TV screen, mouth agape, saying something stupid like "Holy shit!" while another incredible stunt ratchets up the tension on this movie which, if it has any flaws, it's that it is too exciting and stressful, not giving enough breathing room. In that sense, this one resembles M:i:III the most. I complained about the fourth movie, Ghost Protocol, unceremoniously making the storyline about Ethan Hunt's wife meaningless. This movie fixes that in a satisfying way, both for the viewers like me, as well as for Ethan himself.

I really enjoyed the clarity of the cinematography of this movie, and the series in general. This movie proves that you don't have to put your action in the dark or shake the camera around a bunch in order to make it exciting. Some people are nostalgic for old school film over digital cinematography, but I actually prefer movies that look like this one, ironically for the same reason that people prefer film. It's about the immersion. Digital cinematography has become loaded with visual effects, and so brings to mind fakeness for a lot of people, who understandably feel more immersed in analog film, which brings to mind the physical reality of 80s and 90s movies. But Fallout doesn't feel like a movie with a bunch of visual effects and CGI, though I'm sure it's just loaded with them. Instead, the crispness of the cinematography immerses me in a different way, removing the barrier of the medium that sits between me and the action, making me feel like I am there inside a crashing helicopter along with Tom Cruise experiencing the same stress and excitement. This movie makes the whole series worth watching, in my opinion, and also proves the rule that the best Mission: Impossible movies are the ones where Ethan Hunt's hair is short. Five out of five stars, you don't want to miss this one.