★★★★
Bruce Geller and Erik Jendresen join director Christopher McQuarrie to bring Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning – Part One to the screen. Despite the series being formulaic at this point, they manage to create a plot with some originality that holds the viewer to the screen.
An AI program that can access all the world’s technology to spy on anyone and control the media develops its own personality and goes rogue. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is called in to stop it, but there’s a problem. The artificial intelligence can predict all possible outcomes of any scenario and is always several steps ahead of the team. When it joins with Gabriel (Esai Morales), an old nemesis of Ethan and the reason Hunt joined IMF in the first place, the stakes get higher. The AI determines that only one outcome can stop it from successfully dominating the world, and it all pivots on preventing Hunt from acquiring two parts of a key that can be used to access its programming.
The story is a good one and well-scripted. It raises an interesting question or two below its bombastic special effects and over-the-top action. Still, the ideas are buried so deep that they have yet to be explored. Instead, we get characters who mostly stick to the specific motivation audiences are used to from them. Some of the plot is predictable, but it never slows from the opening scene to the film’s end. A bit more humor is included to break the tension than in previous M:I films, and overall, it works. There are a few minor issues with the action moving so quickly that it is hard to keep up; audience members need to pay close attention, or they could easily miss something. Otherwise, the general concept is a good one that holds the viewers’ attention. At this point, the main actors know their characters backwards and forwards, which is good since they spend a lot of time going both directions while trying to stay ahead of their opponents. There are also some new characters that fit right in, perhaps a little too well, which adds to the predictability. The actors stepping into these roles do a fine enough job, and many are sure to have their characters expanded in the sequel.
The action sequences, and there are a lot of them, are solid, but some drag on a little longer than is comfortable. A lot of suspension of disbelief is critical to a film like this, and audiences should come prepared to do so. Still, there is sometimes a point where it gets stretched so thin that it snaps. This happens here in the form of a couple of scenes that last longer than they should, relying on Cruise to deliver breathtaking, amazing stunts.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is exactly what audiences expect from Ethan and his crew, and maybe a little more. As with previous films, he has a specific set of ethics that doesn’t always align with his employers’ goals. But as an artificial thriller, it’s intelligent enough to make viewers want even more.
