Movie Review: ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One’
Plot: In this latest edition to the Mission Impossible franchise, the fight is not against a rogue agent, a terrorist, or a nefarious government, but a mysterious artificial intelligence known only as The Entity. Having achieved sentience, The Entity has gone rogue with its intentions unknown. That doesn’t stop world powers, including the United States, from vying to control The Entity to protect national security and gain an advantage over the world. Enter Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) who sets out along with his team of Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther (Ving Rhames), and Benji (Simon Pegg) to track down the two halves of a cruciform key that could unlock the secrets of The Entity. Standing in his way is Gabriel (Esai Morales) a terrorist who serves The Entity and has ties to Ethan’s past, as well as Grace (Hayley Atwell) a master thief and precarious ally to Ethan.
Review: The release of James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991 heralded the dawn of blockbuster CGI entertainment. For the next two decades, the biggest cinematic blockbuster flex you could have centered around CGI. The more CGI shots a movie possessed; the more studios seemed to tout it when advertising came around. Then a funny thing happened on the way to the box office. Audiences started being less interested in CGI and more appreciative of practical effects. It’s gotten to the point now where the use of practical effects, whether it’s sets or action set pieces is the flex. You only have to look at the box office success of Barbie and Oppenheimer this past weekend to appreciate that.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One falls firmly into that camp as well.
Propulsive, practical, pulse-pounding, and made with passion and pizzazz, Dead Reckoning is everything you want in a summer blockbuster. Whether it is a harrowing game of cat and mouse during a bomb threat at an airport or the climactic confrontation between Gabriel and Ethan on top of the Orient Express, the “Wow Factor” is alive and well seven movies into this franchise. Director Christopher McQuarrie has become quite adept at unlocking the winning formula for these films and he has yet to miss. With Dead Reckoning, McQuarrie once again crafts one of the best efforts in the series, one that’s perfectly paced, even with an almost three-hour run time.
The reason behind the Mission Impossible franchise’s success owes a lot to the personal stakes at play. When every film possesses a “the fate of the world is at stake” angle to it, the method starts to lose meaning—unless you make it matter. That’s why intricately tying the worldwide danger to the personal threat to Ethan’s core group of friends is so important. As Cruise’s Ethan says “Your lives will always matter more than my own.” The fact that Ethan desires to destroy The Entity rather than have the US gain control of it, underscores the strong moral compass of the character. Additionally, the irony that Tom Cruise—someone who hates streaming and wants to preserve the theatrical experience—made a movie where the enemy is an algorithm, is not lost on this reviewer. Thankfully it works and with the threat of AI in the real world becoming less fiction and more fact with every passing day, Dead Reckoning proves timely as well.
Aside from a relevant story, the technical elements of Dead Reckoning are quite remarkable as well. As previously mentioned, the action set pieces are phenomenal, but they wouldn’t be nearly as effective if not for the cinematography of Fraser Taggart. If it wasn’t for Dan Laustsen’s stellar work on John Wick Chapter 4, I’d say this is some of the best action cinematography in years. It perfectly complements the slick editing of Eddie Hamilton (his cuts during the airport scene had me on edge) and Lorne Balfe delivers the best score of any Mission Impossible film to date. His musical wizardry took an already good movie and made it great.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the kick-ass performances of the women actors in this film. As great as Cruise was (and we’ll get to him in a second) the women in this movie don’t just shine, they illuminate. Ferguson is her usual solid self, with her Ilsa being more central to the plot than last time. Her possession of half of the cruciform key is essentially the MacGuffin that gets things rolling for Dead Reckoning. Vanessa Kirby also returns as the delightfully wicked black-market arms dealer the White Widow and someone who would sell her sister for the right price. For some odd reason though, McQuarrie and company decided to have Kirby’s character never blink. It’s a weird quirk that was more distracting than anything else. However, it is newcomers Pom Klementieff as French assassin Paris and Hayley Atwell as master thief Grace that shine the brightest. Klementieff revels in kinetic wickedness. Think Nux from Mad Mad: Fury Road crossed with Jet Li’s Wah Sing Ku from Lethal Weapon 4 and you’ll be somewhere in the ballpark. Meanwhile, Atwell just exudes charisma and charm and proves the perfect foil for Ethan. What she lacks in experience she makes up for with cunning and guile. Yes, she’s a thief but like Ethan, she also possesses a strong moral code which makes her easy to root for.
At the end of the day though, it’s Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt that remains the captain of the good ship Mission Impossible. When I watched the first Mission Impossible film in my junior year in high school, I never imagined audiences would receive six sequels and counting or that Tom Cruise would still be playing the role twenty-seven years later. And yet here we are. Cruise is maybe Hollywood’s last true movie star, an actor who makes large, entertaining movies for the general populace. Much like his fictional counterpart, he is the living manifestation of popcorn flick destiny and I think we are all better for it. His Hunt owns the screen whether it’s zooming through downtown Rome in a Fiat, jumping off a cliff on a motorcycle, or fist-fighting any number of goons, you can’t help but be caught up in the spectacle. This is also the first movie where we get a tease regarding how Hunt joined the IMF and Grace’s story parallels his in many aspects.
Having said all this there are a few issues with Dead Reckoning. One is that the action is so relentless there’s practically no time to slow down and take a beat before you’re on to the next action set piece. Additionally, some of the language is overwrought even for an action film. For example, Faust refers to Gabriel as a “Dark messiah who sees death as a gift he wants to share with the world.” I mean, COME ON. Speaking of Gabriel, his character development is severely lacking as he’s merely The Entity’s Catspaw. Lastly, here’s an admission I didn’t fully realize until this last film. While I enjoy the Mission Impossible films, I’m not enamored with them. They are all highly entertaining, but they’ve never had the staying power—at least personally—as say the Indiana Jones franchise or James Bond. If you asked me the plot of Fallout, I’d be hard-pressed to tell you anything other than Henry Cavill cocking his fists. For me, they are somewhat forgettable.
Regardless, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One remains a ton of fun. It’s an absolute blast that’s worthy of your time and a film that should be seen on the biggest screen possible with the best sound system available.
1 God Awful Blind Yourself With Acid Bad
2 Straight Garbage
3 Bad
4 Sub Par
5 Average
6 Ok
7 Good
8 Great
9 Excellent
10 A Must See
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One : 8/10
