As overrated as his stunts may be, Tom Cruise is unmatched in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
The Mission Impossible franchise—like many others that match its lifespan—makes you ask: Another one? And as often as we see clips of Tom Cruise and his stunts on social media, here’s the kicker: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is still very much worth the hype.
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In Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) faces a rogue artificial intelligence program eerily dubbed The Entity. With Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames) and Grace (Hayley Atwell), Hunt tries to outsmart a program that controls virtually everything—and has eyes on everyone.
The title itself gives this away (but spoiler alert anyway), but this is only part one, so there’s no clear ending here. We don’t know if Hunt and his group of mentally and physically gifted bandits will defeat The Entity. But with an almost three-hour runtime, you get enough of what you would expect: romance, action and that omnipresent question of morality. There's a story that will pull you, there's conversation that is relevant to the entire chapter. In other words: It doesn’t feel half assed for the sake of making more money.
The relevance of AI is at an all-time high, with the common man gaining access with a few swipes and presses on their phone (hey, free apps are free apps, right?). Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One takes our underlying fear and awe, and turns them into Hollywood reality.
Naturally and as expected, the action sequences are pulled off incredibly. No matter what the setting—from atop a high-speed train to driving on and wrecking the cobbled stones of Europe—the choreography is insane, nothing here is left to chance.
But other than that, the film checks off a few more non-action marks: Pom Klementieff’s performance as Paris is endearing and refreshing (she finally does and says things, and has her own identity—eventually), the throwbacks to previous Mission Impossible films are a warm welcome to veterans of the franchise, and there are just enough subplots to keep you entertained. There’s a lot of setup here—again, it’s Part One—but it doesn’t drown you in context.
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As much as it’s been said over and over, Tom Cruise is pivotal to the success and watchability of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. It’s not just because he’s been there from the beginning (franchises have succeeded in passing on the throne); it’s because no one else can do what he does. In a world that’s brimming with superheroes in tight suits, no one can believably pull off what Tom Cruise has mastered: that unnatural ability to be more than human, but not quite god.
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is showing in theaters now.
Art Alexandra Lara
