Christopher McQuarrie returns as director as well as the writer for Mission Impossible - Fallout. He becomes the first director to come back for a sequel but that is because this film is a continuation of Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation that includes the return of the ruthless villain Solomon Lane (Sean Harris.)

Ethan Hunt is searching for the shadowy John Lark and a terrorist group known as the Apostles who have stolen three plutonium cores right under the IMF team and plan to launch a nuclear attack. Joining Hunt is August Walker (Henry Cavill) a CIA assassin as the Head of the CIA does not trust the IMF team after losing the plutonium in the first place.

The action ranges from Paris, Berlin, London and Kashmir. The script has double and triple crosses and even Walker mentions the constant use of face masks like it is Halloween. In fact even the audience is ahead of the characters in the film by now when it comes to face mask deceptions.

If you watch this in the cinema this is a thrilling action packed film. However it is too long clocking in at 2 hours and 30 minutes. McQuarrie is a good screenwriter and has the nuts and bolts down of an action movie. He makes sly references to previous MI films (The character of Max from the first film) and even other Cruise movies (the word 'crystal' is used when one character asks if they have made themselves clear.)

However as a director he is a bit vanilla. This is a franchise that started with Brian De Palma and John Woo, directors who would being style and visual flourishes to each installment. McQuarrie as a director lacks any signature moves apart from competency.

Some of the action sequences reminded me of the Bond films, some of the locations were a little uninspiring. London is used again for the third time in the film franchise.

I expect the future films in the franchise to have a shake up including members of the IMF team. I think Benji has run his course and Luther is a bit long in the tooth as well as bit too porky for these kind of films.