Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One once again sets the bar for action, suspense, and thrills in this new exciting installment in the franchise.
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team must track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens humanity if it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the world’s fate at stake, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothing can matter more than the mission — not even the lives of those he cares about most.
Like previous installments, the film starts with a bang and delivers an alluring and catastrophe level that works very well with this series. The film keeps that pace while establishing a balance between death-defying action, spy mission establishment, and character development. Most of the nearly 3-hour runtime did not feel like it at times and that kind of pacing is most important for a movie this big.
Once again, Tom Cruise’s crew delivers on bringing this series to life. There are a lot of characters, so let me just say the group just crushes the action/thriller combining traditional with new and making it work as they do. Ving Rhames is great and one of my favorites. Rhames is funny, smart, and focused and brings a lot to the mission. Hayley Attwell is a welcome addition to the franchise. An Agent Carter type, but with the rouge nature of the IMF, and plays it so well. Attwell is strong, snarky, funny, and vulnerable which makes for an engaging character with some great tricks and lessons to learn.
Now, Tom Cruise might be a man off the path but he knows how to make his character incredible. Ethan Hunt is fun, flashy, and fighting big time in ways that felt like a career continuing to test him. It’s impressive what he brings and hats off to Cruise’s ability to make this character continue to evolve to get the mission done.
The action is still the same MI action but somehow has the updates to an extent that continues to work. Shootings, chases, and more blend that variety in a way that is just smoothly combined into one of the better action elements in a movie and works in the story. It opens up manners for not going out of the way and keeps the characters at the focus to not just be a waste of action. Some of these action sequences did have a little comedy to them which added that pop and balance to make the film feel much like the action it is.
A great movie like this is nothing without sound to assist and this movie explodes with theater-shaking sound effects, all the editing, mixing, and blending to bring the chaos alive and adds that extra layer we love to see in these films. The music further adds a powerful punch to that symphony that helps create a little emotion to the mix as well and helps tie things together even further.
The visuals are also absolutely stunning and show a great use of technology to make the impossible possible with great camera action that keeps focusing on the action, story, and moments with stability and precise angles. Both real and CGI visuals look spectacular, and the beautiful design of the obstacles blends seamlessly with much of the scenes. It’s fluid, and dynamic, and really sticks to the MI formula with the gravitas that Cruise’s work often has.
The story is still a spy story and works on many levels to be entertaining to a lot of audience members. There are references and subtle tributes to the past, but not enough to the point where it just gets lost in history and allows new viewers to join in the fun. It has an engaging villain and epic obstacles with lots of mystery to solve and accomplish to get to the end. It’s a movie that can stand on its own while still setting up for something bigger in part two without feeling that’s the whole story.
Overall, doing seven movies can be tough, but Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One still delivered on what was promised. Cruise is accompanied by talents and created a movie that is big, bold, and moves further into the complex tale of Ethan’s life. Respect for tradition and building is a great element that we love to see in franchises. The visuals and sound are top-notch with the acting, creating scenes that are much more engaging than most action films these days. With a blend of style and story elements, characters that work well together, and this organic storytelling that does really well at setting up the next movie. The action was thrilling accompanied by a bit of comedy that balanced well together to create something for all types of audience members. The nearly 3-hour runtime might seem a bit long, but the pace and balance help to push past that obstacle. However, I would have liked to have seen more completion and character integration, and the ending may have been a bit cheesy, but overall this movie was everything you could possibly want in an action/thriller.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One is now playing in theaters
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