Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

One way ticket to thrill

I read a comment somewhere saying, “Tom Cruise runs, rides, jumps, flies, clings to his dear life and does every possible stunt on Mother Earth. What else can he do in the grand finale?” But isn’t it the question which people have been asking since the second part, which at that time felt too good to be true. That’s what Tom Cruise can do. A true blue action junkie for the big screen. The one who makes everyone feel young and plausible. I’m sure no one who came out of the movie would have come home sane without raising the throttle at least once.

The movie begins with a submarine and a kind of superpower which was hidden in it. There was some sort of missile showing in the radar. They keep on stating that they’re invisible and don’t understand what’s that coming towards them. But the missile coming at them also becomes invisible. I thought the sequence would end then and there by Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) coming inside the submarine by being invisible and it’ll all be a little joke of the Russians but unfortunately that was the plot of the movie.

We get to the see the very first troupe of mask change at the start of the movie, followed by the template title cards. The mask scene didn’t work but the title card was lovely. In fact the best from what I can remember. Whatever the “Entity” is and what it does is not a problem for anyone because the director, Christopher McQuarrie, doesn’t let you think beyond it as an invisible villain. What a combination, McQuarrie and Tom Cruise are. Should be hailed as one of the best combos of Hollywood.

Hunt and his friends, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) try to go after one part of the key first up but in turn get robbed by someone. It was far-fetched to see such an intelligent team getting robbed by a petty thief, Grace (Hayley Atwell), who was downright annoying, as opposed to an effervescent Helena Shaw (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) from a much recent ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’. In fact when Hunt sticks on to her, tries to save her in a car chase and from White Widow (Vanessa Kirby), it was irritating. She couldn’t get the sympathy of me. Especially the scene where she handcuffs him to the car, was limits.

What follows is a series of Mission Impossible troupes, which keeps us engaged but feels repetitive and compulsory. There were high octane scenes of course and keeps us glued to the scene but there wasn’t any surprise element. None of the troupes give a wow moment. Be it the bike ride, the running, Benji being delirious etc. It was like watching a big star movie who does his trademark thing time and again. Fortunately or unfortunately it works but a bit of innovation would have been nice.

The other characters have nothing to do and apart from a series of action scenes there weren’t a single scene which people could connect. Thanks to the bad audio and no subtitles, audience started chit chatting and munching popcorn as soon as action scenes get over. The movie is worth the time, they forget the popcorn. But thankfully it was a whole lot of time.

Coming to the greatest action scene as advertised by the makers. It feels like the whole film happens for that. But to be honest, it happens too fast without letting anyone feel it. It’s just the one shot. The making felt lot better than the actual scene. With any other film, the train stunt post that would have felt unnecessary but the director and actors make that work too. We can see how they are seeing the film. It could have easily looked like a circus with people jumping like clowns here and there. But it’s the sincerity which propels the film to the next level. In fact god level. I don’t know whether I should be happy that everyone could feel the film as their own and root for the protagonist or worry about how the fans of certain actors could only wish that their hero makes such films.

See, in short, I can never write a good review for this movie, but I can never hate the movie. Mission Impossible series more than anything is a part of our life. It’s the last of something great. Like how, even if the final part of the Indiana Jones was a bomb, how the last book was unnecessarily made into two parts for Harry Potter, this too is one such series you can’t miss out. It’s to be watched in theatres and relished. Reviews are for another time.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Hunt for Hunt

Ever since I watched the trailer of the film with Hunt hanging from a plane and asking Benji (Simon Pegg) to open the door I wanted to watch this film. It was in fact one of the best trailers that year for an action film. A film which I missed in theatres and wanted to watch ever since then, finally became true this time. I binged on the remaining part of this film series on a fine day. I felt that by indulging in a compulsive binge I spoilt little fun of it, otherwise it’d have been a terrific adventure. Apart from it I’ve watched bits and pieces of this film in TV whenever possible on my guilty watch Fridays. If not for these two factors, this would have been even more thrilling. But with Mission Impossible series, even if you know the story it still feels good to watch, thanks to terrific moments in film. Every film would have quite a few great moments in the film. My favorite moment would definitely be the Burj Khalifa scene. With part 4 the whole look of MI series got revived completely.

Rogue Doctor starts off with Hunt in some sort of torture chamber trying to escape out of it by different means. He gets an aid from some unknown person to escape. On another side IMF is disbanded and there is a hunt for Hunt. Quite unsurprisingly he doesn’t get caught and leads the people following him to the warehouse where he gives clues about Syndicate which the CIA fails to believe. He recruits his usual aids for the secret mission.

The first big moment of the film is a highly tense opera program which has few edge of the seat scenes. The movement of Rebecca Ferguson who was brilliant as Ilsa Faust is so fluidic that you’ll fall in love with this assassin instantly. Meanwhile there are other snipers too trying to kill the prime minister, who eventually gets killed. Anyways we don’t bother about him because all we want is high octane action which happens nonchalantly.

The relationship between Ilsa Faust and Ethan Hunt evolves beautifully. It’s not a Bond type relationship but something which both are longing. They are not really happy that they’re working for their agency because they can’t really have a life. Much like how Hunt is always apologetic about his ex-wife. Whenever Faust says, “we’re all the same” we see so much pain in her eyes and those scenes are shot quite beautifully too with absolute silence and close up.

The next big moment is the stealing of data from Casablanca. In fact that is The Moment, the MI moment of the film. Last time they dangled in the air so this time it was in water. It doesn’t match the Burj Khalifa scene but I don’t think it could be matched in any future films too. Still the Casablanca scene was shot very well. When he jumps into water, we could feel our heart skip a beat for a moment. And it’s also good that this time he fails and gets help from Ilsa. In fact this is the film where Hunt fails the maximum time and gets helped by others. Being more human. The extended chase scene and the lead to it is also terrific. The way he grabs the sunglasses before getting into the bike which ends meekly just to avoid hitting Ilsa. It was Ilsa dangling with his emotion.

The climax or the pre climax where the CIA lead is tricked the believe is hilarious and engaging but the scene post it with Benji in it wasn’t as action packed as I expected. Generally MI films follows a different template apart from another film. Here the focus is mainly on the mid film action sequence which ends up to be the most thrilling part of the film.

The beauty of films like these is there are so many scenes which work on its own. You don’t need to know the plot line or something. Just watching it while in break too feels good.