The first reviews for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One are pouring in, and critics are once again praising Tom Cruise for delivering yet another cinematic extravaganza that demands to be seen on the big screen.
Riding high from the record-breaking success of Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise returns as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in this seventh installment of the wildly popular spy series that continues to find new ways for the actor to risk his neck. (This time around, a death-defying motorcycle jump.) While franchises like The Fast and the Furious are starting to show wear and tear, Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie seemed to have pulled off the impossible mission of keeping Dead Reckoning fresh and exciting even if it doesn’t quite top Mission: Impossible – Fallout. At least according to some critics.
You can see what the early reviews are saying below:
Mike Ryan, Uproxx:
I truly get that McQuarrie really wanted to take on this AI idea and that, he’s correct in thinking so, it does feel like a very pertinent issue – at least more than another movie where someone wants to blow something up. This does seem like McQuarrie’s meditation on AI and the dangerous direction we are headed. But it does take a lot of setup and a long way to get there, which after a while does start to feel heavy on the exposition and a bit confusing. (Or, at least, about as confusing as most James Bond movies.) But once all the teams all start chasing the keys, it’s a lot of fun.
Peter Debruge, Variety:
As always, the plot is but an excuse for ever more elaborate set-pieces, executed so convincingly that Cruise has acquired a reputation for carrying out all the insane things Hunt is called upon to do in the movie. That’s a testament to more than just the marketing department; Cruise really is committed to topping his previous feats, and though there’s no shortage of good old-fashioned movie magic involved (in the editing and visual effects), the crew does a terrific job of making “Dead Reckoning” look real. At a moment when nearly every other franchise, from Marvel to “Avatar,” has embraced the fake look of CG cartoons, “Mission: Impossible” appears the most practical: So much of what we see really was captured on camera, and that makes all the difference.
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter:
In terms of sheer entertainment, the movie has plenty to offer. Editor Eddie Hamilton keeps his foot on the accelerator with breathless pacing, and cinematographer Fraser Taggart’s dynamic camerawork keeps the visuals fluid and exciting. Much of the propulsion is also due to Lorne Balfe’s pounding score, incorporating a thunderous remix of the classic Lalo Schifrin TV theme music.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian:
Already, the keynote stunt has become a legend: the one on the poster, the one he reportedly did – for real – six times in one day before he was satisfied. Tom Cruise’s compact body floats free of the motorbike as it drops to earth from between his diamond-hard thighs, having launched him with a throaty roar off an unfeasibly high cliff-edge; he sails through the sky, pulls the ripcord on a nifty little parachute, and swoops down towards … the speeding Orient Express, fully intent on the traditional carriage-top punch-up. We gasped in the audience. Someone behind me went: “Oh shi-i-i …” Carly Simon should have come in with a new song: Fair Enough, Somebody Does It Better.
Todd McCarthy, Deadline:
They should call it Mission: Exceptional. Given that this is a series that began on television 57 years ago and over the past 27 years has delivered seven big feature films, no one would be terribly surprised if it were to begin flagging a bit. But Tom Cruise & Co. will have none of that; to the contrary, this new entry, officially called Dead Reckoning Part One, ramps up the excitement and sheer flat-out impressiveness to a new level.
Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com:
Once again, director Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise, and their team have crafted a deceptively simple thriller, a film that bounces good, bad, and in-between characters off each other for 163 minutes (an admittedly audacious runtime for a film with “Part One” in the title that somehow doesn’t feel long). Some of the overcooked dialogue about the importance of this particular mission gets repetitive, but then McQuarrie and his team will reveal some stunningly conceived action sequence that makes all the spy-speak tolerable. Hollywood is currently questioning the very state of their industry. Leave it to Ethan Hunt to accept the mission.
David Ehrlich, IndieWire:
Ridiculous from the start but also strangely fresh for yet another 21st century tentpole about a rogue A.I., “Dead Reckoning Part One” may not be the best movie in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise — there’s no topping the raw adrenaline rush of “Fallout,” and McQuarrie is smart enough not to try — but this extravagantly entertaining Dolby soap opera nails what the “Mission: Impossible” franchise does best: Weaponizing artifice and illusion in order to fight for a world that’s still worth believing in.
Alex Godfrey, Empire:
Every set-piece is a joy, even though there’s a slight nagging sense, here and there, of deja-vu. The same could be said of the film’s flesh-and-bones villain, Esai Morales’ Gabriel, the human face of the more abstract A.I. threat, giving Ethan someone to punch on top of trains. Gabriel is a solid but somewhat serviceable character, and certainly not as memorable as Henry Cavill’s fist-reloading bastard in Fallout. But Fallout is the highest of bars. And as Dead Reckoning Part One hurtles into its third act, everything ramps up, the stakes getting deadlier, the tension getting tenser, Mission once again proving that balls-to-the-wall action films don’t have to be mindless, or humourless, or stupid.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One opens in theaters on July 12.