Review: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – Should you choose to accept it
Directed by Christopher McGuire
Starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames
6.5/10
After a COVID break, the Mission: Impossible series is back, this time with a two-fer! In Part One here, we get the usual from the series – incredible stunts, explosive action, sneaky espionage – but there seem to be so little new. With everything the series has done so far, as well as everything similar action movies have done recently, we unfortunately get what may be the least remarkable entry in this franchise.
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is at it again, trying to stop the MacGuffin from falling into the wrong hands. The IMF (Impossible Missions Force) unit is after a key, but they’re not trying to retrieve the key exactly, but discover what it will unlock. The key acts like an AI that can constantly change and evolve, til it’s now operating entirely on its own. This sends Ethan and his team around the world, keeping an eye on the key and a closer eye on all those who are also trying to capture it.
There is fun to be had, with a number of exciting and stunning action sequences, mostly done practically with little CGI and no murky colour grading. There are two key stunts that are truly astonishing, even if they’ve been seen in a bunch in trailers.
It’s just too bad that this great action scene comes after a whole lot of plot exposition, plus a handful of action scenes that aren’t that exciting. With the likes of the Fast and Furious, James Bond, Jason Bourne, and John Wick franchises, making an action scene that stands out didn’t initially seem to be an intention of these filmmakers. A couple of action scenes unfortunately seem highly comparable to the recently released Fast X, with both films sharing tight knit car chases through tight knit European cities (Rome specifically), as well as a multi-explosive ending. The Mission: Impossible series may now be known for its incredible real stunts, but Fast X actually trumps it simply because its action scene is more fun, more character driven, contains more humour, and is simply more spectacular to watch.
For what’s meant to be a send-off for the Ethan Hunt character, Part One feels very laboured. As it goes with so many movies these days, this is a very, very long story split into two very long films. Just like the latest Fast X, Spider-verse, and Dune movies, the second half can wait til next year, but it feels so disingenuous when this film’s story feels padded out – a single three hour behemoth of a film would likely have been a more fitting ending for this Ethan Hunt character, rather than such a mediocre action flick that feels so front loaded with exposition, almost as if the action can wait til Part Two.
DAVID MORGAN-BROWN