Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One (2023) (1 Viewer)

[SamT]

Finally saw this. Not good. They went way over their head with the story. Couldn't follow, couldn't understand the logic.

The AI idea was interesting but that needed a serious proper sci-fi drama to explore it. You don't infuse an action movie like MI with heavy stories.

And that top spy chief, you literally know and saw in this movie, they put masks on. Yet you are oblivious again!

 

[Osato]

I loved the movie but I have to admit I have been slow to buy it. I think the part 2 has me feeling like there no hurry.

Have we ever seen another movie drop the part 1 in the title and rename part 2 after the first film was released?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I can’t recall offhand. I do remember they split the last “Divergent” book into two parts, and the first part did poorly at the box office, so they never made the second part.

 

[jayembee]

I can’t recall offhand. I do remember they split the last “Divergent” book into two parts, and the first part did poorly at the box office, so they never made the second part.

If you want to go back far enough, there was Ralph Bakshi's animated Lord of the Rings in 1981. It ended right about at the midpoint of The Two Towers (coincidentally the same point that I stopped reading the book trilogy). Bakshi planned to make a Part 2, but Part 1 did poorly enough that Columbia cancelled Part 2.

As for MI: DR: P1, I happened to watch my UHD of it the other day. Still love it.

 

[JoeStemme]

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: DEAD RECKONING Pt.1 (2023)
The Mission Impossible series is a bit of an anomaly in that it didn't really hit its stride until the fourth entry (GHOST PROTOCOL). Unfortunately, DEAD RECKONING is a step back to the bad old days of the franchise with its haphazard plotting and uneven pacing.

Writer-Director Christopher McQuarrie, who has shepherded the previous pair of films is again at the helm (he co-writes here with Erik Jendersen). The Production is top level with strong stunt-work, FX and location photography (it was Oscar nominated for Sound and VFX). What's missing (along with a tight script) is the staging and editing. Everything takes too long to develop and play out. No matter how eye-popping the action scenes are, they are no substitute for a story where one really cares about the consequences; Doubly so, because this is only “Part One”. Is this truly a tale that will take upwards of six hours to tell? It's quite ironic that will all the car chases, parachute drops, shoot-outs and mano-a- mano combat, the biggest tool in our heroes' bag of tricks is simple pick-pocketing!

Cruise is his movie star self, Pegg and Rhames do their MI buddy thing, Pom Klementieff is a decent villainess and Hayley Atwell is a pretty good new addition as Ethan Hunt's new sidekick (if reluctantly). Rebecca Ferguson, is utterly wasted and quite clearly shunted aside for the fresher, newer model in Atwell. Esai Morales makes for a bland villain who seemingly only shows up when the script needs him to - and even then, mostly just to be certain that his coif looks marvelous.

DEAD RECKONING PART ONE has enough thrills to still be passable, a final grade really can't be rendered until Part Deux is released in 2025.