Some of the reviews for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One have
been 4 and 5 stars but I wonder if the people that gave it such rave
reviews actually watched the previous six in the franchise. My initial
reaction is that I doubt it because if they had I don’t think they would
have been as complementary as they were.
Yes Dead Reckoning Part One is good, but no more than that. Having the
advantage of seeing all the other Mission: Impossible films just days
before Ethan Hunts latest outing I can honestly say it’s nowhere near the
best of them, that honour must surely fall to either Mission: Impossible
Fallout (2018) or Mission: Impossible 3 (2006) in which the late great
Philip Seymour almost stole Tom Cruises thunder.
Yes the stunts as always are terrific, particularly a spectacular scene set
on a runaway train, but the story concerning a mysterious AI called the
Entity which is threatening to make all the worlds computers obsolete is
confusing and not really that interesting.
The beauty of the previous films were as much as it was Ethan Hunts (Tom
Cruise) mission he was always a part of a bigger team, or the IMF team to
be more precise. This time major players in previous films such as Simon
Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanesa Kirby and Ving Rhames are all but relegated
to side characters. Their place taken instead by Hayley Atwell who appears
for the first time in the franchise as an English thief whose helping Hunt
track down the Entity.
There was a period a few years ago when producers, in what was no more than
a ploy to drain more money for the cinema going public, Twilight, Harry
Potter and The Hunger Games were just a few of the films where the last
entry in their respective franchise were split into two parts. Now with Fast
X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse and Mission Impossible all ending on
cliff-hangers it looks as if they’re up to their old tricks again and I for
one don’t want to wait a year to see how a film ends.
It’s probably unfair to criticise Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part
One too much as it’s only the first half of the story but based on this
outing Part Two is going to have to up the ante over Part One to be
anywhere near the franchises best.
