Yesterday was release day for Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, so I took myself down to my local Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill here in the Phoenix area to take in the action. The Mission: Impossible series dates back to 1996 so we are closing in one 30 years of Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. I generally like these films, except for Mission: Impossible 2 not sure what happened there. But here we are with part one the grand finale?
The film stars Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, along with his merry band of IMF Agents Ving Rhames as Luther Stickell and Simon Pegg as Benji Dunn. Rebecca Ferguson, fresh off of Silo season one, returns as disavowed MI6 agent Ilsa Faust along with Vanessa Kirby as the White Widow Alanna Mitsopolis and Henry Czerny returns after only being in the original as Eugene Kittridge. Series newcomers Hayley Atwell as Grace who is a thief turned Hunt ally, Pom Klementieff stars as Paris, a French assassin, Esai Morales as Gabriel, Shea Whigham as Jasper Briggs and from Top Gun: Maverick Greg Tarzan Davis as Degas. Additionally we see Cary Elwes, Charles Parnell (also from Top Gun: Maverick) and Rob Delaney. The film was directed by Christopher McQuarrie off a script written by himself and Erik Jendresen. Notably missing from the film is everyone’s favorite real life superhero Jeremy Renner. It would have been nice to at least have him involved in some way as he has now missed out on the last two films after really growing in his role as William Brandt.
The film has followed the recent trend of Mission: Impossible films of going big. The movie was filmed in Venice, Rome, England, Norway and the Middle East. Any CGI was top notch done by Industrial Light & Magic and the stunts were awesome. Besides the one that they really showcased of Cruise driving the motocycle off the mountain and parachuting down there was an awesome car chase around Rome. Now in my opinion, there were too few stunts/action scenes for a Mission: Impossible film. It does seem like they were really using Part One to build a strong story and close it out in the next part.
The story really hearkens back to an old school spy film in the modern world as they fight against a rogue AI and hardened enemies Paris and Gabriel. Cruise is his usual self in this film and Pegg and Rhames are their usual characters as well. Ferguson is awesome as always as Faust and newcomer Atwell plays an intriguing thief that blurs the line between enemy and ally very well. Overall, Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One falls a little flat from my expectations of the film. I would consider it a kind of middle of the pack film in the franchise. With that I would say that the ranking of the film is a 3 out of 5 Splats. I am looking forward to seeing Part Two and where the series goes.
Have you seen Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One? What are your thoughts of the movie? Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on our Twitter account by clicking here. As always stay tuned to Culture Splat for more content coming your way.
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