Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One
Starring: Tom Cruise, Haley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames
Directed By: Christopher McQuarrie
Rated: PG:13
A little bit of background before we get into this review. I think the Mission: Impossible franchise is probably the best action series we have going right now. I will never forget my introduction to the series in 6th grade as I sat in the theater for M:I III and freaked out at Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s terrifying villain. At that point, I don’t think I had ever seen anything so intense. My love for Mission: Impossible Fallout was so great that I made my own short movie based on it. (Yes, it’s a satire but that movie genuinely inspired me!)
With all of that being said, I was so excited to see Dead Reckoning. Considering the last 3 entries in the series have only increased in quality, I figured there was no limit to how great this one could be. With writer/director Christopher McQuarrie returning, everything seemed set up to be a hit. What stunts would Ethan Hunt have in store? What crazy masks would the team put on and trick me with yet again? What building would Tom Cruise run on top of this time?
Dead Reckoning does, of course, contain all of these elements, but to my dismay, it feels like a drop-off in quality after the high point that was Fallout. Maybe it was the script or maybe it was my sky-high expectations but this movie left me feeling majorly let down. Why? Let’s get into the plot.
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his trusted team including Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames) are on the hunt (you’re welcome for that wordplay) for a key that could threaten the whole world if the wrong person gets to it.
Guess who else is looking for the key? Everyone in the movie. The entire movie is Ethan running around and then being chased. Oh, Ethan just showed up at the airport? 3 people are chasing him. Now Ethan showed up at a nightclub? Alanna (Vanessa Kirby) is there with her guards cornering him to buy the key. Ethan is driving down the road? Car chase to get the key.
At almost 3 hours and only part one of the story, this movie feels like a repetitive chase sequence and unfortunately, the stakes don’t feel high enough. The villain is a faceless evil AI entity. The characters love saying “entity” so many times that the word almost loses all of its meaning because you hear it so frequently. Anyway, the entity has a henchman that terrorized Ethan in the past who we’ve never seen. Considering this is supposed to be the most terrifying mission that Ethan’s encountered yet, I never felt the level of tension that was present in Fallout and Rogue Nation.
Side note- how do you think an entity hires a henchman? Do you think it takes out an ad on Craigslist? Facebook Marketplace? Do you think it pays its workers fairly?
There are good moments in Dead Reckoning. One of them is when Ethan wears this vest and looks like he took on a second job working for Morgan and Morgan.
I’d hate to be on the opposing side of this guy. You’d lose your case the second you walked into the courthouse.
When he’s not defending clients in the courtroom, Ethan is busy doing as many death-defying stunts as possible. The motorcycle sequence that has played in the previews is amazing on the big screen. The finale involving a train sequence is quite a massive spectacle. However, I can’t help but think that the airplane jump from Fallout and the underwater sequence from Rogue Nation left way more of an impression than anything in Dead Reckoning. Maybe in the next movie, Tom Cruise could represent someone in a legal case for Morgan and Morgan while jumping out of a flying car. Geez, give the people something we’ve never seen before.
Without going into spoilers, I have no idea what this movie is doing with Rebecca Ferguson’s character, Ilsa Faust. She has been consistently well-written throughout the series. That is until this film. Haley Atwell is introduced as Grace, a thief who takes the highly sought-after key. This starts a whole new chase sequence with Ethan (I told you all, this whole movie is just high stakes tag) because what is a Mission: Impossible movie if there’s not a new woman for Tom Cruise to be enamored with? I have no issue with the introduction of Atwell’s character herself. Unfortunately with her intro, it’s like the writers have no idea how to write Ilsa anymore. It’s messed up because she’s been a consistently great lead and friend for Ethan in the franchise.
As a huge Mission: Impossible fan, Dead Reckoning was not the movie I was hoping to see. I’m optimistic that Dead Reckoning: Part 2 focuses more on plot-driven aspects of the story and less on repetitive chase sequences. Dead Reckoning has some exciting stunts but unfortunately fails to reach the heights of past M:I entries.
My Rating: 6/10