Review of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) by Tristanhemlock — 18 Jul 2023

Tom Cruise did it again. First he showed how a sequel is actually done in Top Gun: Maverick and now with Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning he did it again.

The movie is definitely a must see, and you'll regret not seeing it.

Ethan Hunt is back and he's showing that he still has it, but also that with age came wisdom. This is a more mature Ethan, but one still more than fit to deal with realistic waves of adversaries. Cruise shows that he's still at his A game and that he has no problem adapting to what should be the age of his character.

That's where Hayley Atwell and her character Grace enters. She knows what Ethan doesn't know and as the set of skills fit for her character, reluctantly but eventually perfectly sharing the spotlight with Ethan. The two characters act and react to each other as two real people put in that situation would.

Grace never once tries to steal the spotlight from Ethan, and Ethan gives her due credit seeing neither character knows everything or how to do anything.

The rest of team also have their place to shine, although unfortunately we don't get enough from them as perhaps we should have. With Benji and Luther being characters that have more to offer.

That's actually where the movie fails. The main villain actually does what that kind of villain should be able to do, and see coming. Those trying to reach that villain have very good reasons to do so. However certain scenes last longer than they should where characters are explaining things that are self-explanatory. The movie could've cut more or less 10 minutes and it would've still have done everything necessary.

Also some of jokes either don't land well or they miss their mark completely.

Nothing that really disrupts the movie in any significant way, or that cuts the build-up.

The movie has the right twists and surprises that you won't see coming, but it's not a perfect story. Seeing two specific items that could've become permanently lost at the beginning of the movie, they just so happen to not become lost so the chase can begin.

Although not a perfect story it's still a very good story, with mostly the right pacing and the necessary characters as well as scenes to make it very enjoyable.

Easily kept me entertained from beginning to end. With a mostly solid story and all the right characters.

The mission of making a great sequel and a great movie is executed with very much success. Something we can't say about a lot of movies nowadays.

Miss it and you'll lose something special.