Ranking the Five Mission: Impossible Films

I'm a little late with this, but about three weeks back, the most recent Mission: Impossible movie was released into theaters. I watched it the Monday after it came out, and it was certainly one of the better entries in the franchise. The franchise has been around for 19 years, seems to keep growing with the announcement of a sixth film, and for fans of it, it might be a good time to know how you would rank them against each other. So here's my ranking of every MI film to date. Worst to Best.

5. Mission: Impossible II

MI 2 is the only bad movie in the franchise. It's ridiculous, it's not really that fun, the characters are at their all time low. I think most people would agree that this is easily the worst film of the bunch and it's hard not to agree with that. I'd rather not linger on a bad film, so let's move on.

4. Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible, the original, does have its moments, but it only has one good character. And besides the exciting break in scene and the opening sequence, it isn't too exciting. The final act isn't very good- it's not fun, it's ridiculous, and the effects are quite awful. Fortunately, it's nowhere near as bad as its sequel, but it's a just okay film, and I really only rewatch to get the whole franchise marathon effect. Not a bad film, but certainly nowhere near the greatness of the later ones.

3. Mission: Impossible III

Mission: Impossible 3 was the first sign the franchise was going to get better. (Kinda like Fast Five for the Furious franchise). It was the first movie that wasn't boring at all, it upped the mission and stakes, added a few cool new team members to IMF, had an intriguing plot, and is probably the most realistic Mission: Impossible to date. The action sequences are one after another, and they're great. The movie is additionally helped by it's villain, Owen Davian, who's played by the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman's villain is unlike your typical action movie villain- he's actually threatening, and makes Ethan's mission become really impossible. There's isn't much wrong with this film- and it certainly isn't the bad movie everyone thinks it is.

2. Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation

Rogue Nation was a load of fun. The team is at it's very best- with Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner taking on big roles and returning from Ghost Protocol- plus Ving Rhames gets a real role after getting forced into a cameo in the previous film. Character-wise, this would be the best film. The villain is the only other real villain in the franchise besides Davian, and Rebecca Ferguson's character is one of the stronger lead female in the franchise. It has funny moments (thank you Simon Pegg), it has serious moments, and it has moments that really make you think. The gem of the movie is the fantastic, lengthy, chase scene in Morocco. It's awesome, and the second best action sequence in the whole franchise. The ending is another great part of the movie. If this movie closed out the franchise, It would be more than a proper ending. The only problem with it is: the plane sequence's potential is totally wasted and used as the opening scene. It was disappointing especially with so much hype about it. It's also quite annoying how Ilsa Faust constantly changes sides.

1. Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol

Of course, Ghost Protocol pretty much has the best action sequences ever. The Pegg-Renner-Patton-Cruise is very good, and every action scene is the movie is tense, cool, exciting, and fun. The Dubai scene is easily the best action sequence in the franchise- and one of the best in all movies. It's an exhilarating ride from start to finish, and the action never disappoints, for the first time in the franchise.

As good as the 4th and 5th entry in the list were, don't be surprised if Mission: Impossible 6 is by far the best. Mission: Impossible 6 is supposed to hit theaters in 2017.