Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Movie review: OG Action !

Introduction

After all the date changes and delays due to the pandemic, the seventh instalment of the Mission Impossible series is finally here. Apart from the remaining cast, the new additions are Pom Klementieff and Hayley Atwell. Henry Czerny as Eugene Kittridge makes a comeback into the franchise after the  first film in 1996. Promising to be a significant step up from the previous instalments, this film gets majority of the things right, but not all!

Basic Story

A Russian stealth submarine, 'Sevastopol', activates an advanced AI named as 'The Entity', using a two-piece key. The Entity goes rouge and crashes the submarine deep into the Arctic ocean. The IMF team led by Ethan Hunt goes after the two-piece key to destroy the AI, which would otherwise prove to be a threat to mankind. 

Positives 

Action and Sound Design

This film is the example of one of the purest form of action that you would see on the big screen in modern day cinema. Tom Cruise doing all those abnormal stuff and making it all look so easy at the age of 60 is truly amazing. And the showstopper of them all is the scene where Cruise jumps of that cliff with the motor-cross. Man, that nearly took my breath off! The hand-to-hand combats, knife-action, car chase, and the train sequence are all properly executed, which makes them so wholesome to watch. What I absolutely loved was the music and score by Lorne Balfe. It was edited to perfection which provided enough elevation to the action sequences, and not just that, the subtle bits of briefly making some scenes devoid of any music enhanced the tension factor supremely! Even the car chase that is shot is Rome is an adventure filled fun ride, which gives you a very heady blend of humor and thrill, and the final train action sequence towards the end of the film, followed by the subsequent survival when the train breaks apart, is surely going to increase your blood pressure. Simply not for the faint-hearted!

Performances and Direction

Performances really do all the talking here and although it can't really go wrong with such a star cast, the acting is surely something to watch out for even for the newcomers. Hayley Atwell and Pom Klementieff take the charge right away and easily blend their characters into the grammar of the MI franchise, which is truly commendable. Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt has gone beyond comparisons now and one can easily understand why he's called one of the best action stars of Hollywood! He infuses life into his character (as usual) and manages to make the viewers extremely emotional about a particular event (discussed late in the review), that wouldn't have felt personal had there been no Tom Cruise! Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson and Simon Pegg, all do well and really do they behave as catalysts in amplifying dull scenes. Talking about the direction, I love how director Christopher McQuarrie grabbed the onset of AI in the world and presented a 'rouge AI', 'The Entity' as the main villain in the film (which, of course, will show it's true colors in Dead Reckoning Part two), which is very ironic considering the modern world, but very effective at the same time. Esai Morales as 'Gabriel' plays a mediator (even an interpreter in some places) for 'The Entity' and his performance is seriously solid. Several bits and pieces of Gabriel hacking radio signals to deliver false messages and confuse IMF, predicting the immediate future course of actions correctly or even creating his hologram to outwit Ethan are cool additions. The screenplay has been nicely written as well and even if it's significantly slow paced than all of it's prequels, it gets the job done. Even the technical aspects do a fine job with the camera work and color grading. The edit could have been better and so do some other bits, which are discussed in the next section.

Underwhelming Aspects

Ambiance and Creative calls

While the previous MI films were high octane action spy films, this seems more of an action drama. There is thrill, there is action, but somehow the kinetic energy seems to be missing in this particular film. This isn't quite as sleek as it's elder cousins and is quite somber instead and the entire tonality is something that I felt to be quite off, as far as the theme of the franchise is concerned. The amount of tech used in this film is significantly less than the others, and while one might argue that tech feels boring after a certain extent, I'm not quite sure about how well the 'intellectual tech' will go down with majority of the viewers. At least they're not quite interesting as the radical ones that the franchise previously used. Talking about the creativity calls, I absolute hated the fact that director McQuarrie paid the final pay-cheque and permanently called it a day for Rebecca Ferguson! I do not want to give out spoilers but it's pretty much understandable I believe. I know you had to show the vulnerabilities of Ethan Hunt, but come on! You just can't break the core IMF team and it's essence so unhinged. It seemed as if the director was more keen on having the leading lady replaced and hence, the decision of getting away with Rebecca to make way for Atwell! This was the loss that I talked about previously, which is surely set to break many hearts! Even, the train scene towards the end is just so dragged, that you would find the otherwise cool cinematic detailing, overwhelming. It entirely robs off this film of the very MI-esque 'proper climax showdown action' factor. The stakes are probably an all time low in the climax and the absence of a 'race against time' factor inhibits the overall fun quotient of the film.

Conclusion

All being said, this seventh instalment of the 27-year old MI franchise is fun but comes with a few more upsets than expected. Although there are several fun action set pieces to cheer for, the film significantly plunged down after Ilsa Faust (Rebecca) was sacrificed. The film did not succeed enough to pick up after that event, and hence, ended on a rather low note. All the film reports speculated that it's not going to be easy to beat the fantastic MI: Fallout (2018), and the reports are proven correct today. But against all odds, this film offers plenty to rejoice and while you may ask 'should you choose to accept this mission', I would definitely say yes! With several details yet to be shared about 'The Entity', hopes are an all time high as MI:8 releases in less than eleven months from now!

Watch Out For

• Cast performances
• The action scenes
• The motor-cross and the train sequence

WTF Rating

7/10