Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One | Film Review

 

I love the Mission: Impossible movies. In the conversation between Barbie and Oppenheimer, my personal version of that was Mission: Impossible 7 vs Insidious 5. This is the second MI film I've seen in the cinema and I'm really glad I decided to go and see it on the big screen.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team are back, searching for a weapon that could threaten the entire world if it falls into the wrong hands. But when a enemy from Ethan's past returns, he has to accept the fact that nothing can come before the mission - not even the lives of those he cares about most.

I liked this film. It wasn't my favourite Mission: Impossible movie, but it's definitely up there.

One of the reasons I love these movies so much is because of the familiar cast, and it was great coming back to them this time around. The film reunites Cruise with Ving Rhames (Luther), Simon Pegg (Benji), Rebecca Ferguson (Ilsa) and Vanessa Kirby (Alanna), but there are also a few new additions, including Hayley Atwell (Grace), Esai Morales (Gabriel), Pom Klementieff (Paris) and Cary Elwes (Denlinger). It is great seeing the old cast come together again, and the new cast members fit into the story really well.

Having said this, I wasn't as invested in the new characters as I wanted to be. I felt that some should have had more screen time, while others needed more backstory so their prevalence in the film made more sense.

I also wanted Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames to have more to do. Obviously, their characters aren't completing these missions in the same way that Ethan Hunt is, but compared to the last movie, they were around a lot less this time. Or at least, that's how it felt.

The pacing felt weird in places. Some scenes were too slow, others way too quick.

But, as with most of the other M:I movies, it was really fun, and that's my favourite thing about watching these films. There were times I didn't fully understand the gravity of what they were fighting for, but it didn't really matter.

Overall I enjoyed this movie, it was great to see it on the big screen, and I'm really excited to see the second part!

7/10