Mission: Impossible 7 Absolutely Rules

a year after the global success of top gun Maverick Tom Cruise is back putting Cinema goers on his shoulders and dragging us to the promised land he's not the cinema savior we deserve but he's the one we need right now he's been a mega star for decades but who would have thought that a 5'7 60 year old Scientologist [Applause] the person responsible for bringing out the biggest crowds and keeping the theater going experience alive last year he resurrected the Top Gun IP with one of the best films of the year and audiences responded to the tune of 1.5 billion dollars plus at the box office and an Academy Award nomination for best picture this year he strikes again with the seventh yes seventh installment of the mission impossible franchise Mission Impossible dead reckoning part 1. it's an absolute Banger of a movie that's the best time in the theater you'll have all year it continues the mission impossible Legacy of being the quintessential popcorn action movie dead reckoning is Thoroughly entertaining never lulls is shot exquisitely by season director Christopher Macquarie with the steady acting hand of Tom Cruise and co-stars on the screen this one comes highly recommended if you like to have fun there's an idea of an earnestly made movie when filmmakers give you exactly what you expect from them when their intent shines through on the screen the last few years Tom Cruise and Company have been delivering bring that in Spades and they've been a beacon of light during an era of Hollywood when they're reliant on the safest bet possible meaning we receive mostly Bland boring or outright awful films made without any desire to balance Commerce with art dead reckoning provided exactly what I needed a great time at the theater with literal edge of my seat moments and something that actually felt like it was worth the price of admission which is hard to come by in modern times Tom Cruise might come off a bit eccentric in real life but if I had to pick one person in the world to call a born Entertainer it would be him he's given some wonderful performances throughout his illustrious career in a wide range of genres my favorite performance of his is easily the supporting role in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia and he showed off his comedic chops as the disgusting producer in Tropic Thunder my fist is going to be so far up your that every time you have a thought it's past my wedding ring but he's also one of the greatest action film stars of all time up there in my book with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Keanu Reeves if we are talking exclusively Hollywood Productions there's something distinct here in my opinion Schwarzenegger has some of the best action movies of all time under his belt with predator in the first two Terminators and Keanu has the original Matrix movie as well as a couple greats with speed in the 90s and the original John Wick I wouldn't consider anything Tom Cruise has been in to be one of the greatest of its genre on an individual film level but the mission impossible franchise as a whole is so consistently entertaining it's one of the best action franchises ever that's a testament to Cruz's commitment to his craft let's face it with five directors and seven entries this franchise is what it is because of Tom Cruise besides the enduring draw of Cruz the Mi series is known for spectacular action sequences involving some elevated endearing stunts and increasingly intense set pieces as the movies progress mostly performed by or involving Tom occurs himself the man is renowned for doing most of his own stunts making the films feel more authentic and exactly what I'm looking for and earnestness in the craft and while it's a popcorn movie franchise to the max they also have some pretty engaging story lines they follow a formula set from the original television show the franchise is based on where our hero Ethan's presented with a new mission to kick off the story that flows through twists and unexpected Revelations den Reckoning maintains that consistency that might have reached a fever pitch with 2018's Mission Impossible Fallout if you enjoyed that one this one's definitely for you while Fallout was the conclusion of a three-part story dead reckoning continues the high octane action Intrigue and clever twists and turns dead reckoning follows Ethan Hunt once again this time set on a mission to find two pieces of a key that can disable a rogue artificial intelligence that's become sentient every major power on the planet is attempting to find the key because whoever controls the AI known as The Entity will essentially have the power to control the world Ethan assembles his team team of Benny Luther and Ilse Faust and along the way crosses paths with a thief named Grace played by Haley Atwell in her Mission Impossible debut who has also been tasked with acquiring the key now let's get one thing straight the action in this movie is incredible then Reckoning continues the mission impossible tradition of unreal set pieces in international locations meaning each action sequence has its own distinct Flair and style Tom Cruise might be starting to look his age and that's okay because he looks pretty damn amazing for 60 years old but regardless of that it seems like nothing is slowing him down there's something really unique knowing that it's him doing all of this crazy jumping off a motorcycle after leaping off a cliff and parachuting onto a moving train car chases car crashes and horse chases it's a thrilling experience and the use of exotic locations adds an incredible backdrop to the stunts and action sequences giving dead reckoning as well as previous films in the franchise an enormous Global Blockbuster feel without having to resort to CGI and let let's face it when it comes to Danger we know Ethan is going to make it and that shouldn't be shocking because it literally says part one in the title but even so I was still on the edge of my seat multiple times seeing it in IMAX surely enhances the Thrills but it's never about is Ethan going to live or die it's more about how is he going to get out of this one there's a huge dedication to the craft of filmmaking going on behind the scenes to bring all of this insane stuff to the screen there's a ton of behind the scenes footage Paramount Pictures released over the past several months revealing the bike jump alone is one of the biggest stunts in cinema history with filming it so complex that the cameras used weren't even available just two years prior that level of dedication is something normally reserved for the likes of James Cameron who pushes the boundaries of special effects in VFX but with Cruz and Macquarie they're trying to push things to the max in reality not behind a computer screen oh and they actually made an entertaining movie unlike Avatar 2. macquarie's more in line with the Christopher Nolan School of filmmaking if you can do it for real then do it for real it's a pleasure to get away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe brand of CGI infested blurred hollowed out visuals to have something on the screen that's tangible that really exists that really happened and was caught on film not something filmed against the green screen and passed off to an overworked VFX artist to do their magic because nothing can replace the real thing this movie had a budget on par with an MCU movie but its cost increased exponentially when the pandemic struck with multiple delays happening requiring filmmaking to take place over multiple shooting periods a far cry from a Marvel movie that can be filmed and dumped off to have the rest generated in a computer speaking of computers the core of the plot centers around artificial intelligence run amok threatening the world these things can go either way between cringe and good depending on how it's handled but I think the delays in filming might have actually benefited the film Mission Impossible is always over the top not fast and furious level over the top but pretty extraordinary nonetheless and when the AI AKA The Entity was introduced I was worried for a second but honestly with the introduction of chat gbt and the floor chain and expanding use of artificial intelligence over the past several months this concept doesn't seem remotely far-fetched at all now it seems like a natural progression of reality that the series is following when it comes to dealing with real world Concepts The Entity is able to take control of electronics at any time which is a great concept on paper but could be used as a storytelling crutch thankfully the script is smart with the way this is utilized giving it some form of boundaries so it never seems overused or contrived when it's implemented outside of AI we do have humans the cast for the Mi movies have always been great and dead reckoning part 1 is no different I mean what else can I say about Tom Cruise he's the man this dude is a National Treasure and it'll be a sad day when he's too old to do the patented Tom Cruise run across the screen but it doesn't look like we're going to be seeing that day anytime soon he's so damn famous it's hard to see him as anyone other than Tom Cruise but for what it's worth He embodies the character of Ethan Hunt and this series simply doesn't exist without him whether we're talking about behind the scenes or on the screen Haley Atwell makes a great addition to the cast and her character Grace is cheeky in all the right ways she's not the annoying kind of strong female character that Hollywood loves to try and shove down everyone's throats in modern times everything she's capable of doing makes sense it's explained and she's a fully formed character it's great to see Haley Atwell in a larger role that isn't an independent film or the character Peggy Carter she deserves to be a huge star and it would be odd to have a mission impossible movie without Ving Rhames and the man the myth the legend is here where he belongs he plays great off of Simon Peg's Benji and after multiple films together their chemistry is obvious essay Morales plays Gabriel the new antagonist for the dead reckoning films and so far in part 1 he delivers a solid performance he's particularly menacing in a few scenes but there's nothing extraordinary about Gabriel so far it's a mission impossible movie so he's perfectly comic bookie in nature and he has a connection to Ethan's past which will surely be explored a bit more in part two but so far he's a serviceable villain that isn't really wowing me isai Morales is a great actor who's appeared as a supporting role or villain in a number of movies and TV shows over decades so I hope he has something more to sink his teeth into in part two unfortunately for the Mission Impossible series there will never be anyone who can top Philip Seymour Hoffman's villainous turn as Owen Davison in part three easily the greatest antagonist in the franchise's history and one of my favorite screen villains ever it's hard to contend with one of the finest actors to ever live but asai Morales character of Gabriel still has room to become more menacing dead reckoning's directorial choices by Macquarie are confusing at times if you haven't seen the previous entries interestingly a number of test screenings were reportedly by a younger generation of people who had never seen any Mission Impossible films a reminder that Cruz has been playing Ethan Hunt for almost 30 years in Macquarie uses a lot of Dutch camera angles and techniques throughout the movie which I thought was an odd Choice until I realized it's a bit of a throwback to the original movie directed by Brian De Palma zapalma used the same camera angles frequently throughout his illustrious career and it stood out to me a lot in the first Mi movie Macquarie emulates the Palma's style using the camera angles to increase tension in dramatic scenes but he sticks to his own beautiful shooting style when filming action there's the scene wrapping up the second act that felt like a visual throwback to the original movie too reminding me of the scene when kittrich confronts Ethan in the restaurant one of the most famous scenes in the franchise when he's jumping away from the exploding fish tank yes exploding fish tank all this is done without any form of nostalgia baiting these things are subtle not forced at all and are more there for long-term fans without interfering with the story or stopping to hit the viewer over the head with member berries while dead reckoning is only half of the story with part 2 scheduled to release next summer it still holds its own as an excellent entry no it doesn't stand on its own because we're missing conclusion here but it doesn't suffer the same issues a lot of cliffhanger entries and franchises do Captain Jack Sparrow was swallowed by the Kraken Han Solo was encased in carbonite Neo was trapped in the train station these sort of moves leave you wondering what is happening to the hero and still needing a conclusion to the main story but with dead reckoning there's a satisfying ending to the film while we're waiting for a conclusion basically what I'm getting at is that nearly every aspect of this movie was well thought out planned and executed and it's going to absolutely dominate the rest of the summer and it's going to dominate for the same reasons top gun Maverick did because it's a no agenda no honest-to-goodness entertaining movie it's bizarre that this kind of movie is so few and far between admittedly when it comes to Independent films there are some great great movies that come out every single year last year Pearl was my favorite movie hands down and that cost a million and a half dollars to make but when it comes to Big Blockbusters they're made in every way possible that audiences simply aren't responding to anymore it's like big budget movies are made on a conveyor belt there's so much riding on their success that everything feels sanitized neutered completely stripped of anything worthwhile and coming out as Hollow low brow pieces of look how well Disney's done this year it melt the Nostalgia bait for a few years before reality has hit them in the face losing nearly a billion dollars at the box office over the last year on top of that modern Blockbuster films feel the need to fill in a diversity quota or push some sort of political agenda forward into their films emphasizing these things more than good storytelling least of all emphasizing great filmmaking it's a perfect storm of crap and that's why movies like Indiana Jones and the dial of Destiny bombed a few weeks ago why Little Mermaid was a stinker and a money loser yet a film like top gun Maverick and John Wick 4 blast off at the box office and critical success Mission Impossible dead reckoning is in the same ballpark because Tom Cruise and Company and extremely diverse cast have no interest in pushing agendas into their films they are here to entertain you take a look at Haley atwell's character she's not the modern idea of a strong independent woman and what I mean by that is she's not a character who's smarter better and one-ups the main character we actually paid to see with no Rhyme or Reason other than it's a writer self-insert no she's incredibly intelligent Swift clever and gets the better of Ethan a few times but she has limits she can't do all the things Ethan can do because literally no one can it helps developer into a real character instead of some Hollow entity written in by a screenwriter every character's backstory paints a portrait of who they are and why they are capable of doing what they're doing there's no Ray Palpatine anywhere to be found in dead reckoning there's no one upstaging Ethan Hunt regardless of who it is he's the man we came to the theater to see and that's what we get it's actually pretty wild to think that Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the Crystal Skull was the same same age as Tom Cruise is in this movie it's like night and day Ford looked and performed great in Crystal Skull despite the movie being trashed don't get me wrong but Cruz is on another level he's still performing and running around the screen like an absolute Maniac at 60 years old it's absolutely unbelievable Mission Impossible 7 is going to be one of the biggest Blockbusters of the year and is about to put Indiana Jones in the dial of Destiny to shame just a few weeks apart it's everything an action movie should be and in a lot of ways everything a movie should be if we boil it down to one word entertaining at two and a half hours I couldn't believe how fast the time had passed I was fully invested in simply having a blast at the movies a relic of a concept in modern times it made me go back and start re-watching the entire series from the start and it's too bad I have to wait an entire year for part two to come out I hope Hollywood continues to take notes from Tom Cruise stop making agenda pushing propaganda and get back to making great movies like this one ggs

Channel: The Movie Cynic

Views: 71,383

Keywords:

Id: rt-47Tnz_AM

Length: 15min 17sec (917 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 13 2023