WITH edge-of-your-seat thrills, mind-bending set pieces, fantastic fight scenes and palpable stakes, the newest Mission Impossible movie has raised the bar for all action movies.
Led by the seemingly ageless Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I takes viewers on yet another wild journey against impossible odds and enigmatic villains.
The movie seems tailor-made for genuine fears affecting the real world today, positioning an all-powerful artificial intelligence known simply as ‘The Entity’ as the antagonist. But Cruise battling an AI wouldn’t be all that fun, so director Christopher McQuarrie cast Esai Morales as the AI’s human emissary.
While past entries of the franchise have done bumper box-office collections, the audience was enticed to see those movies usually because of Cruise. In the fifth movie, he scaled the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa. In the sixth one, he jumped out of an airplane.
It was usually the sheer curiosity of watching Cruise perform these stunts that brought people to the theatres, regardless of how good or bad the movie was. In this movie too, Cruise rides a motorbike off a cliff and then parachutes to safety. Promotional videos of Cruise performing this insane stunt went viral months before the movie was released, and are sure to draw in the audience.
What’s different this time is that McQuarrie has managed to add real stakes and an unexpected heart to the movie. The odds, like every time, are stacked against Cruise and his misfit band of secret agents. But there’s a feeling that this time Ethan Hunt may fail in his mission.
Haley Atwell is a welcome addition to the cast that’s already full of fan favourites. Pom Klementieff, whom audiences will know as Mantis from the Guardians of the Galaxy films, plays one of the bad guy’s henchmen. But despite the trope-y description of her character, Klementieff excels in her role, bringing a certain madness and chaos.
Cruise, of course, proves again why he is one of the most reliable stars in Hollywood. Despite his age (he is 61 by the way), Cruise puts his all into his performance.
Some of the best scenes in the movie aren’t about Cruise’s apparent superhuman abilities, but showcase him trying to deal with genuine moral dilemmas. These scenes are also when the script shines the most.
McQuarrie on the other hand takes full advantage of this fact, constructing insane set piece after set piece centred on Cruise’s character.
The sheer volume of set pieces can feel a little overwhelming at times. McQuarrie does not give Cruise or the audience enough time to feel the full impact of the scenes, quickly moving on to the next action sequence.
The climax of the movie is by far the most bonkers of them all and sets up the second part of the movie perfectly.
Some of the action pieces do lack a certain sense of believability. But you can’t complain about reality when the literal fictional organisation that the characters work for is called ‘Impossible Mission Force’.
A must-watch in theatres for all action movie fans.
– Deviprasad Nair
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