Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation is high-quality Hollywood escapism, an enjoyable summer popcorn movie better than most blockbusters. On the flipside, it's a damn shame that that is all it is. The great thing about Rogue Nation is that I really enjoyed it while watching it. The not-so-great thing is that as the day went by, any nuances the film had started to escape my mind. This may be put down to bad memory, but I think there are more likely reasons that can be found in the film's faults.

This is the best Mission: Impossible film since Brian de Palma's original adaptation of the TV series - however, they could not be more different. In a similar way that James Bond is now too moody instead of witty, Mission: Impossible is too light instead of being a darkly atmospheric. (This change in tone since the Brad Bird Mission: Impossible film may be a blockbuster reaction to the popular grittiness that suddenly plagued Hollywood products since the mid-2000's. Now, with the release of films like Kingsman: The Secret Service and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a lighter tone is proving to be successful with the public.)

The tone of Rogue Nation is not a genuine Mission: Impossible tone - it's a reaction to current trends and popular opinion - which is a shame, because grit and darkness always has a place when used correctly.

The twists and turns come from the very beginning of the film to the very end, and most impressively, maintain momentum.

Despite, or rather due to that tone, the film is an easy and enjoyable ride, with an excellent set-piece in the beginning and in an opera. The best achievement of the film is it's plot - not the screenplay as a whole, but the plot. This is the second best Mission: Impossible film because it is espionage-y in a throwback to John le Carré novels. The twists and turns come from the very beginning of the film to the very end, and most impressively, maintain momentum. Too frequently do blockbusters stumble over the second act break, leading to a disingenuous and disappointing third act climax. Rogue Nation avoids this with an ever-twisting plot, with only a couple of hiccups down the road: a motorcycle chase that lasted far too long, as well as an uninspired on-foot chase scene at night in London. Hollywood needs to learn from South Korean directors how to shoot chase scenes...

The plot is the best thing about the film, and not the screenplay, because the screenplay is the whole, combining plot and character. Here's the problem with the screenplay: the characters are thinly drawn out. What's the point of Luther Stickell, played by Ving Rames? To figure out the merits of a film, I find it helpful to remove elements and imagine if they'd detract or not make any difference to the film. Luther Stickell does not make any difference if he wasn't in the film.

Rebecca Fergusson, an actress who looks like she belongs in the glamour of 1940's Hollywood cinema, plays a double-ish agent with little personality apart from being a badass spy. Likewise, the main villian, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) has a great name and again, little personality. However, he is more plot than character, so he works on the basis of a creepy voice and his manipulation of the good guys alone. Simon Pegg has his mandatory comic-relief role - and as always, plays it well. The great surprise of the film is Tom Hollander, best known for his role in Pirates of The Caribbean, putting in an excellent performance with a wonderful sense of comedy.

The cinematography is unsurprisingly well-done by long-time Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator Robert Elswit, choosing a sleek but not too flashy style, maintaining spatial continuity and a consistent visual language. Similarly, composer Joe Kramer does a great job of injecting new life and new interpretations into the Mission: Impossible theme, as well as using the famous Puccini "Nessun Dorma" as a motif. The soundtrack alone is worth seeing the film in a cinema.

The bottom line on a film like this is, it looks great and sounds great. It doesn't add much to the art of cinema, nor does it detract from it. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is a fun way to spend two hours.