Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One - Movie Review
3"Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" (2023) directed by Christopher McQuarrie is a large scale epic action film that will not disappoint fans. I did however like it slightly less than the previous 3 films in this franchise to come out, but it's not that far off the mark and is still made with a continued standard of high quality.
Ethan (Tom Cruise) and his team are tasked with retrieving an important key. This key unlocks access to an all powerful A.I. called the Entity. The world's nations are fighting over control of the Entity because they want to make sure they have dominance of the military powers on Earth. Ethan recruits a pickpocket named Grace (Hayley Atwell) to the team.
Dead Reckoning Part 1 is the longest film in the series so far and it is filled to the brim with sheer non stop action content. The greatest advantage about being a sequel is that you can skip all of the introductory and backstory stuff and jump straight into the action. Luckily this franchise has set a relatively high bar for itself and this one does not disappoint. I enjoyed how each location in the film served great purpose and was showcased fully and entirely, as a viewer I felt like I was a part of the adventure because of how much time we spend at each distinct and memorable location.
I particularly liked the extended train sequence because it gave me time to appreciate what was going on without forgetting about it too quickly as inferior action films often do, refusing to slow down for even a moment. While this is definitely a fast paced film and it's lengthy run time actually flies back pretty quickly, I felt the film did know when to take a chill pill and enjoy the moment of what was happening. Part 1 films can often be frustrating but I was actually quite pleased with how it ends and the direction we are going. The few issues I have with the film were both Tom Cruise & Hayley Atwell giving noticeably less enthusiastic performances than what I am used to from them, the decision to kill off one of the main characters in a rather stupid manner, and besides that one main character everyone in this film is inexplicably saved at the last moment possible repeatedly to where it becomes laughable and I no longer believe they are in danger which hurts the overall tension.
Dead Reckoning Part One is absolutely worth your time and money. Each of these modern Mission: Impossible films have one upped each other to this point, and while I don't think this one one upped it's predecessor, it did borrow existing characters and elements from it while going in a direction that could lead to the best yet.
#rainynights #movies #missionimpossible