‘Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ movie review: a lifeless addition to the franchise
Five years after the sensational Fallout, which had pretty much everyone explaining how the Mission Impossible franchise was James Bond but better, Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie return with a new instalment to their globe-trotting spy-thriller franchise. Armed with a bucket of popcorn, awareness of multiple five-star reviews and the words of Steven Spielberg to Cruise in my head (“You saved Hollywood’s ass, and you might have saved theatrical distribution”), I eagerly awaited a triumphant return to big-spectacle cinema. But oh boy, was I disappointed.
About five seconds in, I felt my eager grin turning stale and hardening into a grimace of bewilderment. The ‘cold open’ of the film, the exciting teaser with expendable characters that sets up the movie’s overarching plot, takes place underwater. We see the crew of a Russian nuclear submarine encounter a very modern and digital threat. On paper, it’s very exciting, but… why are they speaking in English? Why are they speaking like stiff 1960s Bond villains?
Perhaps if I rewatched all the Mission Impossible movies up until this point, I would realise that Dead Reckoning is adhering to the exact same formula. Still, I could have sworn that the previous outings were a little bit more classy. For instance, if a scene took place in a foreign part of the world with exclusively foreign people, we’d hear the native language and see English subtitles. Right? Maybe not. Perhaps I’m nitpicking, I thought. So I settled in for the rest of the film.
Half an hour later, the ball was really rolling. All the main characters had been introduced, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt had already worn several different ‘face’ mask disguises made out of synthetic human skin (these have always been ridiculous, but I’ve always been here for them), and the villain had been firmly established. Now, you’ll see a lot of reviews and coverage talking about how prescient the filmmakers are with the ‘AI’ threat. But let me tell you now: there is nothing smart or forward-thinking about it.
Cruise and McQuarrie lucked out that this film happened to release among AI-based concerns, SAG/WAG strikes and general global anxiety. The villain in Dead Reckoning is annoyingly referred to as ‘The Entity’ by all the characters, completely independent from each other as if Ethan Hunt thought the term up, and then the whole word instantly downloaded it into their brains. It is also a complete non-character. This is not because of innovative and smart writing constructing a cold, calculated, emotionless machine. No, despite having characters state as much, the filmmakers have actually gone to great pains to try and characterise ‘The Entity’ as a baddie. It has its own ‘bad computer’ sound, a sort of digital gurgling that sounds like a stoned teenager made it in on their laptop in their bedroom.
The ‘prescience’ in Dead Reckoning is about as clairvoyant as a terrible episode of the original Star Trek. In fact, it’s even dumber, which makes it all the worse considering it’s nearly 70 years later. The complexities of artificial intelligence, which we’re still barely even comprehending, aren’t even remotely explored in this new movie. There’s little to no probing of the implications of computer sentience whatsoever; it’s simply ‘AI bad. Hunt must kill’.
Bar one fairly spooky moment involving Simon Pegg’s character giving Hunt directions over the phone, the villain may as well be a shadowy master criminal à la Skyfall‘s Blofeld. In fact, speaking of shadowy criminals, there is a human stand-in for ‘The Entity’ in the form of Esia Morales ‘Gabriel’, who acts as a devout AI zealot hellbent on granting it worldwide domination. Why? We’re not sure. But it also turns out he’s a long-standing figure from Hunt’s past – the ultimate bad guy of bad guys. Why? Still not sure!
I’m no snob – the Mission Impossible films are excellent because of their silliness, their outlandishly gob-smacking stunts (usually performed by Cruise) and beautiful locations. Dead Reckoning has its fair share, and some of them really do stand out on the big screen and are worth the price of admission alone. This is important to note; despite my criticism, I was still happy to pay for that theatre experience. But only just. Considering the hype and the five-year buildup, something about Dead Reckoning just feels a bit lazy.
All the supporting actors dial in a hammy performance, especially newcomer Hayley Atwell of Captain America fame. I know it’s a silly spy movie. I know it’s all meant to be a little bit tongue-in-cheek. But still – the characters don’t have to be as two-dimensional as a piece of A4 paper, do they? And the dialogue doesn’t have to sound like a ten-year-old wrote it… does it?
As you’d expect, given the title, Part One, Dead Reckoning is only half the story. But when the film ended on that inevitable cliffhanger and the credits rolled, I didn’t find myself remotely excited for Part Two, whenever we get it. With Fallout and its thoughtful writing and brilliantly charming villain in the form of Henry Caville, the Mission Impossible franchise was able to balance both tasteful and classy filmmaking with abundant big-budget spectacle. It’s just such a shame that this new one only seems to be able to pick one.
