Mission Impossible Fallout - Action Packed

Mission Impossible Fallout Poster

Talk about never a boring moment. The new Mission Impossible movie, Fallout, was action packed. And I enjoyed every minute of it. I like action movies, as I'm a writer of action novels, especially my two Killer books, and I'll say Fallout never failed to impress.

Tom Cruise is getting up there in years, but he still pulled off a series of stunts that would make a man in his prime proud. I heard during the course of production he had broken an ankle on one of those stunts and it reminded me of Robert Conrad of Wild Wild West fame. Conrad had insisted on doing his own stunts until the inevitable day came when he got hurt.

So I don't blame actors for using stunt men as fill-ins for the more dangerous scenes. I'm guessing Tom Cruise learned his lesson. But the scenes were seamless and the movie top notch. I have one critique, or one complaint--SPOILER--and it is this: Henry Cavill of Superman fame does not make a good bad guy. Meaning he's not convincing as a bad guy. Meaning, when you see Henry Cavill, you see Superman, the ultimate good guy.

Henry Cavill in MI: Fallout

I'm not suggesting Cavill is typecast as Superman, but I am suggesting Cavill is typecast as a good guy. And that's not a bad thing. After all, in every Tom Cruise movie, Cruise is a good guy. There are other actors like that. Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, and Ben Affleck are good guys in every movie they've been in. Same with Christopher Reeve, the other Superman actor. The list goes on and on. So making Cavill a bad guy in Fallout didn't work for me. But it didn't ruin the movie. The only thing that might have ruined the movie was Cavill's mustache. (Cavill with a mustache? Please, no.)

Another reason I hated seeing Cavill as a bad guy is the fact that if my book, John Dunn; Heart of a Zulu were ever to make it to the big screen, Cavill is my first choice to play the lead role of John Dunn, the white chief of Zululand. I had posted comparable photos of the real Dunn and Cavill, each with a beard, and they are strikingly similar in appearance. Apparently Cavill sports a full  beard much better than a lone mustache. Even if its accompanied with some stubble as shown to the left

But whatever. I don't know if Cruise as the years remaining to make more MI movies. This was, what, the sixth or seventh? That's a pretty successful run of a franchise right there. I suppose he might make one more. Maybe two. And I'm betting they'll both be good.