Idolisation of Tom Cruise on many levels is a complex issue, people just can’t help but begin all adoration comments with their own personal addendums. Whether it be – Oh, there is so many addendums one could make. However what is undeniable for anybody who cares, and if you’re reading this then you should, do or must care just a little about the state of the film landscape. Cruise has made the Mission Impossible series his personal vessel to continue his attempt to revitalise and reinvigorate both the film industry and blockbuster spectacle with practical film-making and a level of visual craft (paired with his fighting creative partner Christopher McQuarrie) that so many modern films just avoid, take easy routes on or couldn’t care less on it seems. This is a film by McQuarrie and Cruise as film-makers who have made it their single mission to reclaim a medium that to be hyperbolic sometimes feels as though it is dying at our feet, and though at times this is a mission that seems impossible, in Cruise and McQuarrie hands with Dead Reckoning, it practically seems effortless.
I want to first talk about two things, one specifically about this film in the current film landscape and the other in the landscape of the MI franchise. Firstly, I have no idea how much Cruise and McQuarrie knew of the set-pieces of the films that would be released up against this one however to have this film have a train sequence that is so faultlessly tangible, that is thrilling to no end, that is paced like a bullet and is some of the finest action film-making I’ve ever seen – to come out back to back with Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I mean, come on. I want to take my score for that film retroactively down due to the comparison of those two train action set pieces back to back, one can’t even compare them in many ways. Then to have this film feature the series’ best car chase, the Rome set multi-vehicle city spanning masterful screwball farce with real action consequences too – to come back to back with Fast X’s Rome (technically) car chase. I mean, come on, twice. It could never have been intentional but never has a release date given a MI film such credit and bolstering on the pedestal of the world of action film-making. Now on a point relating Dead Reckoning to the rest of the franchise, it is no secret to anyone who I have talked to about these films that my favourite by far is the original Brian De Palma masterpiece and in so many ways this film serves as a perfect bookend to that one, to show how far this franchise has come whilst also utilising the greatest strengths of its roots and beginning. Beyond the superficial (train finale, the long awaited and triumphant return of Eugene Kittredge) this film really does bring the series back to a true feeling of paranoia and tragedy and weight in so many minor and major ways. Now do I wish that there was a little bit more of that stripped back original quality, perhaps. However that is not the strengths of McQuarrie or where we are now. Now overall there are times where the exposition, no matter how intriguing does get out of the hands of its writers and creators and one feels marginally lost and perhaps even at odds with some of the action sequences. However as an overall product McQuarrie and Cruise have once again made a compelling action drama that is still leagues and bounds above the rest of the modern fare.
Let’s discuss
the elements of this film that are return favourites and return successes, of
which there are many. This film boasts multiple return performers once again
delivering great performances as characters that become indelible in the
franchises movements. Rebecca Fergusson, Vanessa Kirby, Simon Pegg and of
course Ving Rhames. Pair all this with the return of McQuarrie’s incredibly assured
hands, and again performances that we didn’t realise we would get again, such
as the excellent Henry Czerny as Kittredge, and you’re in for another entry
that doesn’t exactly break any moulds that the recent films have set, but does
solidify them further. Cruise is once again as excellent a performer as only he
could ever be, he is in many scenes the only current living actor, or even at
times it feels through time that could pull of some of these scenes and moments.
However this film like Maverick in its vein also makes repeated chance
to utilise Cruise’s dramatic acting capabilities that so often I feel get lost
in the spell of his physical attributes. Overall Dead Reckoning becomes
a film that maximises in all aspects the best attributes in its arsenal, including
several new aspects and characters, including a devilishly entertaining Pom
Clementieff, an incredibly fun and exciting Hayley Atwell and a wholly sinister
and filled with menace Esai Morales. If this is the future of the franchise
than one can only await the second part of this adventure with complete eager
arms.
A bold and masterful 8/10 commentary on spectacle and the dangers of the modern world and how reality, truth and the tangible are at risk for us – but above all else a barn-storming non-stop thrill ride that strategically and elegantly composes an action-thriller-mystery combining the best elements of the best films of the series, into a concoction that doesn’t better the best of the series, but adds another impeccable entry into by far the strongest franchise we currently still have a steady output from. It’s easy to get highfalutin about a film of this quality that has so many ideas, but don’t lose sight on it’s practical and immediate action thrills.
P.S. Now I have rallied against in multiple reviews the whole ‘part one’ of a series of recent films, however I don’t know this felt more whole than many of these other efforts, however even at this stage with this being far superior than the others, I can’t help but feel I’ve started eating a meal, I must wait possibly five years to finish. I don’t know if I would feel different if this cliffhanger ending was just this film’s nature and whether the title actually would effect anything. Alas.
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Thomas Carruthers
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