Review: 5 things to know about 'Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One'
Did the Cruise-McQ train finally hit a snag, at least for them?
27 years ago, Ethan Hunt accepted a dangerous mission, one that would take him all over the world. A battle that saw him be turned against his longtime mentor, played by Jon Voight. Remember how fresh Brian De Palma’s smashing 1996 thriller was? Six films later, and the Tom Cruise-driven adventure series won’t stop, can’t stop with the death-defying stunts and intelligent storylines.
But everyone hits a twig barely sticking up out of the snow from time to time, and while the Mission: Impossible series is seemingly unstoppable and highly successful, it’s bound to happen. Upon leaving the screening of Dead Reckoning Part one, the seventh edition and the weightiest at 163 minutes, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time with these movies: let down.
Yes, I enjoyed John Woo’s flawed yet rollicking original sequel, which is the most hated next to the hybrid-produced M:I 3. Following Brad Bird’s entertaining uneven Ghost Protocol, Christopher McQuarrie joined the Cruise train and formed a cinematic bond with the movie superstar.
2015’s Rogue Nation and 2018’s Fallout were step-ups for an already electrifying series of movies that combined action, thrills, and depth. However, an exhausting Part One, with an eighth already being filmed, had me feeling less than thrilled to revisit this one. If there’s one thing about the Mission: Impossible series, it’s that avoiding a rewatch, especially with the last two, is nearly impossible.
In order to fully release my take, which has been marinating for two weeks, let’s break it down to five things for you to know. I like that method, and it’s catnip for writers. Let’s get into it.
THE ACTION STILL SIZZLES
If there’s one reason to buy a ticket, something that’s currently clogging up my Rotten Tomatoes rating, it’s the relentless action scenes. The much-talked about motorcycle jump in Norway delivers, but an extended train sequence-which does result in a monstrous crash-takes the cake. The hand-to-hand combat work took a step down. How many damn fights can these characters get into before redundancy settles in?
Overall, still pretty good but starting to look a little winded. The extended multi-car chase is just okay, even if it’s done practically. I felt worn out most of the time, that is when I wasn’t wondering why no one punches down at Cruise.
LOTS AND LOTS OF CRUISE
I love the guy and think of him as one of our last genuine movie stars, but he’s painted across this entire movie. I literally wondered when he showered, slept, and ate. It helps to see these people cram down a burrito like Ryan Gosling did in the underrated Russo Brothers flick, The Gray Man. Here, Cruise just keeps kicking, punching, brooding, running, and kicking until his face loosens from a prolonged stoic stammer.
He’s still dialed in as Hunt, but maybe running out of ideas when it comes to reactions and dialogue reads? The dialogue runs a little hot on overwrought threats, and Cruise can only stare through Esai Morales’s head so many times. Speaking of which…
THE BIG BAD IS A BIG LETDOWN
I didn’t like Morales’s Gabriel. He’s a fine actor, but this take was better in Netflix’s Ozark--that is before his character caught a face full of lead. Here, he’s witty and cunning with some athletics thrown in for good measure. The problem is most of his dialogue and story are dull and ripe with retreaded tire marks.
How many bad guys want to stare into Hunt’s past? Will M:I 10 feature 30-35 minutes of de-aged Cruise like Indy 5 did with Harrison Ford just so he can fight another asshole? I sure hope not. Like Mads Mikkelsen in that film, Morales is let down by a less-than-potent screenplay.
The biggest issue is that Morales has to follow Superman in the antagonist department. That’s just unfortunate. Cavill made for an excellent heel to Hunt in Fallout, and a good bad guy can always help a movie climb over a writing wall.
The confidence and precision in Cavill’s work is missing in Morales, who gets a few nice “I’m so ahead of you, Hunt” smirks and a couple knife fights to build a character out. He seems like more of a roadblock than a true adversary--something that Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sean Harris, and Cavill captured in spades.
Maybe Part Two fleshes him out a little. For now, it’s a letdown.
Pom, Pom Power
She may have been a sweet, mind-controlling Guardian of the Galaxy a couple of months ago, but Pom Klementieff turned heel just like Sup did for this Mission. She’s the main henchwoman for Morales’s evil Gabriel, taking on Cruise in a tight alley and bashing his smaller cars all over Rome.
Paris, Klementieff’s aptly named character, steals the show here. I wanted more time with her than anyone else on screen. Sporting an arsenal of weaponry and skills and looking like Versace’s ninja, she swings down like a punk rock star who stepped out of a painting at a museum in France to take on the good guys and gals, including an underused Hayley Atwell and smaller-portioned Rebecca Ferguson.
While a third act story decision lessens her bite, I really enjoyed Ms. Klementieff here.
This Mission is Kind of Dull
McQuarrie wrote Rogue Nation and Fallout with Bruce Geller, but his co-writing pal here is Erik Jendersen and their screenplay is the weak link here. The adventure suddenly seems more dull than before, and the action can’t make up for the fact that Hunt should be caught or dead by now. James Bond doesn’t go through this much shit, and John Wick decided to take a breather after round 4.
Realism is not what I’m after. Trust me. We left that a few movies ago when Cruise held onto a plane while it took off. It’s the concepts and how much tread is left on the tires. How many problems and bad guys can this guy go through, even with a heck of a team. Atwell, Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and the returned Henry Czerny all do fine jobs. It just doesn’t amount to the same amount of excitement and theater-leaving feel that previous entries provided.
The Verdict: If you set the bar high, you’re bound to smash into it eventually. While Mission: Impossible-Dead Reckoning Part One (gosh, what a mouth full) didn’t hit it smack dab in the middle, the precision in this one isn’t as sharp as the last two. Tom Cruise may be the energizer bunny of action, but even those batteries eventually die.
Ethan Hunt refuses to, but I hope Dead Reckoning’s… reckoning is better.