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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One -
This entry in the long-running series achieves a pleasant balance of looking to the future and at how far the series has come. It makes this intention apparent off the bat with a thrilling and scary cold open involving submarine combat and a force that many have good reasons to be concerned about lately (I'll just go ahead and say it: AI, which it dubs as "the Entity"). This is followed by the return of everyone's favorite company man from the movie that kicked it all off, McKittridge (Czerny), who tasks Hunt with a mission that brings our beloved team of Luther, Benji and former rogue and now ally Ilsa together. They soon encounter someone who is just as duplicitous and who makes their jobs more complicated in professional thief Grace (Atwell). She's a minor inconvenience, however, compared to yet another uninvited guest who happens to be a ghost from Ethan's past and who brings the most prominent question of this entry and likely its follow-up into focus: can AI be a friend, or is it ultimately a foe?
Despite the adversary being on the bleeding edge, what stands out the most when I think about the movie is how old school its action set pieces look and feel. A better way of saying this is that they have much more weight and much less of the corner- cutting and/or obvious CGI that have made action movies from this decade less fun and involving. In addition to the finale that has a nod to the first movie's, the car and foot chases through Venice are favorites and make me glad that such set pieces can still excite me, and that they have genuine comic relief makes them all the better. That's not to say such scenes are bereft of CGI, but what it does have from the look of the Entity to all those digital readouts on the IMF's ultra-modern hardware emphasizes purpose over showing off. It is nice to have Czerny along for the ride again, and although it's only been five years, it's nice to see everyone in the entire team again, and they all get to do what they do best. Atwell is a very welcome addition, especially for how she holds her own against the mainstays, as is someone else I won't say much more about other than he may even intimidate Solomon Lane. As for the series' commitment to James Bond-like globetrotting: if it also makes you keep coming back for more, it's very much intact here as well.
As much as I enjoyed seeing this in a theater - and I do recommend seeing it in one if you can - the movie is not without its flaws. Your mileage may vary with McQuarrie's writing, which I find to be excessive in the same way that Christopher Nolan's is at times. Also, this may just be an unavoidable consequence of adding and reintroducing characters, but as nice as it is to see Luther, Benji and Ilsa again, I wish there were more "off the job" time with each of them, if you will, especially since past entries make a point to do this. Other than that, while I'm not sure where I would rank this entry since it's so consistent, I again must call out how well it reminisces and looks forward at the same time and that it commits to its trademark spy craft as much as it does to the action. What may be a more worthwhile compliment, though, is that I'm still wondering what will happen in the follow-up days after seeing it, which is thankfully only one year away.
This entry in the long-running series achieves a pleasant balance of looking to the future and at how far the series has come. It makes this intention apparent off the bat with a thrilling and scary cold open involving submarine combat and a force that many have good reasons to be concerned about lately (I'll just go ahead and say it: AI, which it dubs as "the Entity"). This is followed by the return of everyone's favorite company man from the movie that kicked it all off, McKittridge (Czerny), who tasks Hunt with a mission that brings our beloved team of Luther, Benji and former rogue and now ally Ilsa together. They soon encounter someone who is just as duplicitous and who makes their jobs more complicated in professional thief Grace (Atwell). She's a minor inconvenience, however, compared to yet another uninvited guest who happens to be a ghost from Ethan's past and who brings the most prominent question of this entry and likely its follow-up into focus: can AI be a friend, or is it ultimately a foe?
Despite the adversary being on the bleeding edge, what stands out the most when I think about the movie is how old school its action set pieces look and feel. A better way of saying this is that they have much more weight and much less of the corner- cutting and/or obvious CGI that have made action movies from this decade less fun and involving. In addition to the finale that has a nod to the first movie's, the car and foot chases through Venice are favorites and make me glad that such set pieces can still excite me, and that they have genuine comic relief makes them all the better. That's not to say such scenes are bereft of CGI, but what it does have from the look of the Entity to all those digital readouts on the IMF's ultra-modern hardware emphasizes purpose over showing off. It is nice to have Czerny along for the ride again, and although it's only been five years, it's nice to see everyone in the entire team again, and they all get to do what they do best. Atwell is a very welcome addition, especially for how she holds her own against the mainstays, as is someone else I won't say much more about other than he may even intimidate Solomon Lane. As for the series' commitment to James Bond-like globetrotting: if it also makes you keep coming back for more, it's very much intact here as well.
As much as I enjoyed seeing this in a theater - and I do recommend seeing it in one if you can - the movie is not without its flaws. Your mileage may vary with McQuarrie's writing, which I find to be excessive in the same way that Christopher Nolan's is at times. Also, this may just be an unavoidable consequence of adding and reintroducing characters, but as nice as it is to see Luther, Benji and Ilsa again, I wish there were more "off the job" time with each of them, if you will, especially since past entries make a point to do this. Other than that, while I'm not sure where I would rank this entry since it's so consistent, I again must call out how well it reminisces and looks forward at the same time and that it commits to its trademark spy craft as much as it does to the action. What may be a more worthwhile compliment, though, is that I'm still wondering what will happen in the follow-up days after seeing it, which is thankfully only one year away.