Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1
I have loved the Mission Impossible movie franchise and was looking forward to this latest release. I liked this installment, with one exception.
There was a scene towards the beginning of the movie where several top government officials were discussing what they were up against. It was basically an excuse to explain the plot. Movie plot exposition is a common thing in many films, but this was the most blatant example of this I've ever seen. The camera panned around the table as each person said a few sentences and then the next person would take over the briefing and pick up right where the last person ended. It was like the director said instead of having one person give the plot explanation to get the viewers up to speed, let's spread it over six actors. It just felt so forced and unnatural that it really bothered me. Sorry to spend so much time nitpicking that one scene.
Besides that, I found it very entertaining and Tom Cruise was great, as usual. I think I actually enjoyed the prior Fallout installment a little more, but I still give it 7.9 stars.
Contrast that with two different action movies that recently came out on Netflix. These were Heart of Stone starring Gal Gadot and Hidden Strike starring Jackie Chan and John Cena. Both were ridiculous and I couldn't take them seriously. I wanted to enjoy them but they were so unrealistic.
I know Mission Impossible is not a Ken Burns documentary and is also totally fake, but it's done well enough that you can entertain the premise. That is something I could not do watching 120 lb. Gal Gadot defeat multiple soldiers in hand to hand combat or watching her supervisor pull CGI surveillance data displays into the air and knowing what was happening all around the world at any given minute. Nor could I believe that John Cena has a jet engine in the desert that can create a dust storm to create cover for him to hijack 2 buses from a military convoy with a couple guys on dune buggies. Maybe he learned those physics from the Fast and Furious Franchise.
Anyway, I couldn't even finish the last two movies so it's unfair for me to give them a number rating, but they made me much more grateful for Mission Impossible 7. Now I just have to wait a couple years for part 2.
