In recent years, the whole world is reeling in the race for artificial intelligence. Tom Cruise and his colleagues are not out of that trend when choosing this as the theme for part 7 of the billion-dollar action franchise. Mission: Impossible. This time, he continues to play the talented spy Ethan Hunt, whose appearance is much older than the previous part, but the desire to save the world has not cooled down.
In the world of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Mission Impossible: Karma – Part 1), humanity continues to fall under threat as an artificial intelligence system called Entity has gradually developed to the point of amazing, conscious and wants to become a force to overthrow humanity. The only hope to control or destroy this AI is two key pieces containing a piece of code are missing.
Ethan Hunt and the IMF team are tasked with finding the key to the US government. Sources say an old friend of his, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) is holding one of the two pieces. Hunt tracks down Ilsa, Hunt uncovers the terrible secret behind this mission. All nations wanted to possess the Entity, turning it into a weapon of destruction in their hands. On the contrary, this AI system also recruits subordinates under its command to raise the desire to overthrow humanity.
The best movie of the Mission: Impossible franchise
Tom Cruise is often praised as “the older the ginger, the spicier it gets”. As an A-list star in Hollywood, he has not only maintained a firm foothold in the world’s film capital for the past four decades, but his career has also been steadily advancing. Similarly, the action brand associated with the actor’s name also tends to increase in quality with each episode. After the first three seasons were not overrated, Mission: Impossible has now become one of the most anticipated blockbusters for global audiences with its ratings continuously increasing.
Critics’ review of Mission Impossible parts.
After the first premieres, the audience and critics received it Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Very positive. The work currently has a 99% freshness score on Rotten Tomatoes out of 148 reviews. This is also the highest achievement of the brand after more than 25 years.
A familiar feature of Mission: Impossible is often changing directors after seasons, leading to a new breeze for each episode. However, after Ghost Protocol (2011), Tom Cruise seems to have found a good teammate in director Christopher McQuarrie. He became the first person to direct two consecutive projects of the franchise, Rogue Nation and Fallout. At the same time, McQuarrie will also accompany Tom Cruise in the two possible final parts of Mission: Impossible.
Christopher McQuarrie is known as one of the best screenwriters in the crime-action genre in Hollywood. He is behind the success of many beloved classic films such as The Usual Suspects (1995), Jack Reacher (2012) or Top Gun: Maverick (2022). So it’s understandable when Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One owns a relatively tight script, bearing the style of the spy movie genre.
The Director puts Ethan Hunt in an extremely stressful situation when he has to betray the IMF because he does not want to help the government own the Entity and turn it into the ultimate weapon. He became the target of being chased by those who had helped him. At the same time, the Entity itself is building up an army of its own to protect its hardware. In the age of information technology, every action of Ethan Hunt is controlled by this artificial intelligence system, in the palm of his hand.
Throughout the film, the details are very well connected so that the audience can easily grasp the plot. The first and last acts brought many unexpected twists to the audience along with a series of eye-catching action sequences. Meanwhile, the middle of the film is somewhat lengthy and appears to have some rather sketchy and unreasonable details. However, overall, the team succeeds in keeping the tempo fast and engaging.
Action is still the specialty of Mission: Impossible
As usual, the most attractive point of Mission: Impossible is still the unique, creative action scenes. With a budget of up to 290 million VND, this is the biggest project of Tom Cruise. Thanks to that, the team is qualified to turn their craziest ideas into reality.
In the first episode, Tom Cruise entertained viewers with a series of impressive battles and explosions. The opening scene is the scene of the giant submarine being taken over by the Entity, which ends up sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Soon after, Ethan Hunt takes on a mission to the desert to find his friend Ilsa Faust – who is being hunted by a series of money hunters to get the key piece back.
Towards the end of the film, the action scenes are increased in investment level. To introduce the new heroine – super thief Grace (played by Hayley Atwell), the crew brings an extremely eye-catching chase on the ancient streets of Venice. The second most notable action segment is the melee on the legendary Orient Express train.
In addition, the fact that Tom Cruise does most of the stunts himself without the need for a stunt also makes the work different from other competitors in the market. These segments are choreographed with high realism, without using too many technical tricks and editing to become smoother. Although not too impressive in the segments that have to talk or express emotions, Tom Cruise always knows how to captivate viewers with his daring actions.
Scoring: 4.5/5
For purely entertaining blockbusters, the audience can hardly ask for anything more in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The film fully converges the elements needed in an action blockbuster – a Hollywood spy.