Critical popcorn

The Mission: Impossible series is one of the most consistent film franchises going, and yet I constantly see it dismissed by friends as “just Tom Cruise doing stunts.” It’s one of the few franchises where even the weakest installment is a decent film, and the latest is no exception.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team facing their deadliest enemy yet, an all-powerful new kind of A.I. named “The Entity,” a self aware, constantly learning programme that has infiltrated every conceivable level of society. Integral to controlling the Entity is a key comprised of two halves. Hunt’s mission (should he choose to accept it)? Retrieve the key and keep it out of the hands of those who would use it – even his own government.

It’s an unashamedly silly mission, and is weirdly reminiscent of Lord Of The Rings. The idea of “the ultimate weapon” that all the world powers want to get their hands on, but only so they can harness it for their own purposes, is similar enough to Tolkien‘s story, but then someone actually says that it hasn’t occurred to the villain that the heroes want to destroy it. There is even a visual representation of The Entity that bears an uncanny resemblance to the eye of Sauron. I might be clutching at straws but I don’t think so.

Writer / director Christopher McQuarrie has made the series his own since taking the reins for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Here though, he reconciles his own characters with those from the previous installments, re-establishing the continuity most notably by bringing back Henry Czerny’s brilliantly imperious Kittridge from the 1996 original film. There are numerous other callbacks to the first film through the repeated use of sleight of hand, and the return of Alanna Mitsopolis (Vanessa Kirby) the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave’s Max.

The returning team members, Luther, Benji and Ilsa (Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson) are all given plenty to do, and find themselves in the midst of the action. There is a very real sense of danger and suspense to the film – at various points it felt like we could lose at least one member of the team. Added to the mix is pickpocket Grace (Hayley Atwell) who immediately proves more than a match for Ethan as well as the perfect audience surrogate. She’s not part of this world, and she reacts as we would to the dangerous situations she is thrust into – with genuine terror. Atwell is great in the role, making Grace’s combination of cocksure arrogance and vulnerability believable. One nice touch has her being unable to let go of Ethan during one nail-biting sequence – it’s a small detail but one that makes the situation instantly relatable.

Less successful is the chief villain, who remains something of an enigma. Gabriel (Esai Morales) certainly looks the part, but he is almost a zealot, entirely ruled by the A.I. villain. It robs him of his agency and makes for a less compelling character, especially when there is already a pre-existing backstory with Ethan that is never properly addressed. Thankfully, Pom Klementieff is a wonderful addition as Gabriel’s chief accomplice, giving a beautifully deranged performance that’s bursting with malevolent glee. She’s the most entertaining side villain we’ve ever had in the series, and her final few scenes make her even more intriguing.

Cruise himself is as game as ever when it comes to the death-defying stunts, but he’s at his best in the smaller character moments, when he feels like a real person as opposed to a superhuman. The car chase on the Spanish Steps wouldn’t have been half as memorable without Hunt and Grace awkwardly navigating being handcuffed together (perhaps in a nod to Tomorrow Never Dies?) and the breathtaking motorbike / parachute stunt is grounded in reality by Ethan snapping at Benji “I’m trying to get away from the mountain!” and Benji’s subsequent hissy fit.

Unfortunately, the dense plot and frankly unwieldy cast often threaten to derail the film, and this is best demonstrated through the sheer amount of scenes comprised of pure exposition. That in itself should have maybe been an indicator that the plot was getting out of hand.

That being said, McQuarrie has to keep a lot of plates spinning and largely pulls it off. There’s the IMF team, Gabriel and his henchmen, Kittridge and his superiors, Alanna and her gang, and the two hapless CIA agents chasing down Hunt, all with their own agendas and objectives. That the various subplots and characters are established with such clarity and economy is quite an accomplishment in and of itself.

Where the film really delivers, is in the action, and here Dead Reckoning is up there with the best in the series. The numerous chases and fight scenes are thrilling and breathtakingly filmed, and each one makes innovative use of the various environments, be it a dizzying car chase in a tiny Beetle, a claustrophobic fight sequence in a narrow alley, or a desperate climb out of a dangling train carriage.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One isn’t as efficient or focused as other entries in the series, but its strengths lie in the sheer scale and spectacle of the action sequences. It might feel overstuffed in places, but the pace never lags, and the characterisation is much deeper than it needs to be. Perhaps most tellingly, even with a runtime of nearly three hours I still can’t wait to see Part Two!

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is released in UK cinemas on 10 July