Dead Reckoning Part One almost falls under the weight of its own plot holes and narrative chess movements, but stays the course as a quality blockbuster due to its massive set pieces and boundless energy. The latest mission for Ethan Hunt and his crew hits the 2023 AI zeitgeist perfectly, holding a middle finger up to algorithms and stale writing with unpredictability and sleights of hand. Tom Cruise is approaching immortality with performances like this. His physical presence and sheer aptitude make the MI franchise feel like essential films in the summer schedule every few years. Carrying out heart-stopping stunts with prowess actors half his age lack, Cruise’s performance feels so dominant, believably charming and even humorous when needed. His encounters with Hayley Atwell’s striking new sidekick Grace reflect a magnetism between the pair. Some moments strain believability, like Benji’s bumbling fieldwork and the Fiat chase, but it’s all part of the preposterous joy. Somehow, in the seventh time out, Hunt and The IMF’s predicaments still feel fresh rather than formulaic. Just when you expect a twist or the next play, the film zags in another direction. The constant misdirection and layers of deception are necessary when the stakes are this high. No supercomputer, including the film’s Sauron eye-like villain ‘The Entity’, could craft something so fabulously erratic and turbulent. I had problems with the endless plot-shattering questions that kept coming to me during my screening (like why are there no rogue agents going after the easily killable Benji or Luther?), but I was willing to do what is customary and suspend my disbelief to the best of my abilities. While not the greatest release of the summer box office, Dead Reckoning Part One proves that practical stunts and filmmaking bravado can still captivate on the big screen. It’s a bold work of construction and pacing that screams the vitality of movie theatres isn’t going anywhere.
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