What started out as an ensemble TV series has long become a cinematic star vehicle for Tom Cruise. I’ve highlighted in this post how Cruise would go above and beyond in the name of entertainment, risking his own life to bring ‘something we’ve never seen before’ in one death-defying action sequence after another. As Proximo says to Maximus in Gladiator ‘win the crowd and you will win your freedom’ Well, Cruise has certainly won the crowd with his MI movies and thus gained the ‘freedom’ to do whatever he wants with this lucrative franchise. Paramount basically gave him carte blanche as he can decide whatever crazy stunts he is willing to do, to the point where the action has taken center stage. That is totally fine by me, had it not been at the expense of the story.

The movie opens with a sequence featuring a Russian submarine carrying a gold cross-shaped key that could access an AI program dubbed The Entity. Once unlocked, it has the power to infiltrate every digital information, communication, and all the secrets of the world’s top intelligence agencies. It could destroy humanity as we know it if it falls into the wrong hands, that is, unless the IMF team can get to that key first.

The old gang is back: expert hacker Luther (Ving Rhames) and tech guy Benji (Simon Pegg), plus former MI6 spy Ilsa Faust (the oh-so-watchable Rebecca Ferguson) to help Ethan’s um, hunt for the key. The team somehow gets interrupted by a sly international thief with ambiguous motives called Grace (Hayley Atwell, my fave female non-superhero of the MCU). Atwell is a great addition to the series as she’s not only stunning to look at, but can somehow match Cruise’s charm and energy. It’s amusing to see Ethan looking frazzled as Grace somehow manages to elude him in an elaborate chase through an airport. Things get even more chaotic and funny when they get handcuffed together while stuck in a tiny Fiat. There have been a ton of car chases in this franchise, but this one on Rome’s cobbled streets is still fun and memorable.

Christopher McQuarrie has been a steady creative partner since Rogue Nation, tailoring the script to Cruise’s strength as an action star. So far it’s proven to be a fruitful partnership, and this time they upped the ante with a two-part story usually reserved for the ‘final’ installment of a franchise. No end in sight for this one, however, as Cruise has been quoted as saying he wants to keep doing MI movies until he’s as old as Harrison Ford. Well, interestingly enough, as I mentioned in my Indiana Jones 5 review, there are some similarities in the action scenes, both involving a train fight and a whole bunch of chase scenes in exotic locations.

The script written by McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen isn’t quite as sharp as the previous three MI movies, not to mention overlong. The talky scene involving the Intelligence’s agency top bosses Kittridge (Henry Czerny) and Denlinger (Cary Elwes) goes on too long, and I can spot the old disguise trick from a mile away. Now, the AI-driven plot is a timely one given our increasing reliance on digital technology and the internet. In theory, it ought to be more ominous than a threat from some megalomaniac hellbent on world domination, yet the sense of impending doom just isn’t there, and I chuckle seeing the AI depicted like a glorified Windows screensaver.

It doesn’t help matters that the big bad villain Gabriel (smartly dressed Esai Morales) doesn’t look the least bit threatening. Aiding Gabriel to retrieve the key is French femme fatale Paris Pom Klementieff, her name is an homage to Leonard Nimoy’s character The Great Paris in the MI TV series. I’ve only seen the French actress as Mantis in the Guardians movie so it’s a bit jarring to see her so absurdly aggressive in the role. While Cruise and Atwell are playful in the car chase scenes, Klementieff takes her role way too seriously. Meanwhile, Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis are relegated to comic relief roles as a pair of government agents chasing Hunt, who are always a few steps behind. 

SPOILER ALERT (highlight to read) – My biggest disappointment is in the way they kill off Ilsa Faust, my favorite female character in the franchise by far. I suppose I should anticipate her demise as her role is significantly reduced to make room for Grace, but to kill her off in such an undignified way is disheartening.

Ferguson isn’t the only one sidelined here, Vanessa Kirby, who plays sultry arms dealer The White Widow also doesn’t get much to do as she did in Fallout.

In any case, I won’t delve into too much of the plot, which is overly convoluted by design. One character says to another, ’I’m gonna need more details,’ to which he replies casually, ‘Oh they tend to be in the way.’ Ha! So even the writers are aware people don’t really watch MI movies for the plot. Moviegoers come for the grandiose action sequences–a desert horse chase + sandstorm shoot-out and the party scene at Venice’s gothic Doge’s Palace, which is lit up dramatically. Fraser Taggart, who worked in the camera department in Fallout, does a great job as the main DP for this one. 

The foot chase featuring the famous Cruise running scene is shot in and out of dark Venetian alleyways. The fight scene in a narrow alley feels appropriately claustrophobic, and there are a number of hand-to-hand combats atop a Venetian bridge. While most of the scenes are beautifully shot, I feel that the drone shots circling the bridge fights are distracting and take away the suspense and emotional intimacy of the duel. Lorne Balfe’s score feels overdone as well in this scene, though overall, I enjoy his dynamic music in the past couple of MI movies. 

The money shot that’s been teased in all of the movie’s promos comes in the third act. Thanks to Benji blundering his navigation to get Ethan inside the Orient Express in time, he has to parachute down onto the train instead. It’s the moment we’ve all been anticipating and that motorbike BASE jump off a towering cliff is pretty exhilarating to watch. No matter how many times we’ve seen Cruise cheat death with gusto, I’m still in awe of it as the scene is so well-choreographed and meticulously staged. The train wreck sequence is a pure adrenaline rush, boasting practical effects by using a real train built on a real track instead of relying simply on CGI. No wonder the movie cost nearly $300 to do and this is just Part One!

Despite all of the spectacular action, I’m not as enamored with this one. The last few MI movies have set the bar so high for this franchise, I actually gave Fallout a perfect score, so I expect a lot from this one. Alas, with many first halves of two-part movies, this one feels incomplete and presents more questions than answers. That said, a not-so-great Mission: Impossible movie is still better than most action movies out there. I do hope the narrative will be as phenomenal as the action in Part Two.

So have you seen Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Part One)? Well, what did YOU think?

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