Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning (Part 1)
Year: 2023
Rating: PG-13
Length: 163 minutes / 2.72 hours
When it comes to the Mission: Impossible movies, you know what you’re going to get. Tense countdowns. Action set-pieces. Tom Cruise running. Even though the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) has overcome many obstacles in the past, there’s always a question of whether this latest mission will be too much for them. With Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning (Part 1) (2023), the threat is so large that this movie only covers half of it. As long as you’re OK with not having a conclusion to the full plot, this movie is fun and full of action.
With Artificial Intelligence (AI) being a current hot topic, using it as the antagonist of this film felt like it fit right into the cultural zeitgeist. Not that AI has been a new villain by any means (as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) has shown). Considering the (fictional) power of this AI, the Maguffin of the two-piece key to control it was a great way to drive the plot and the action. The ebb and flow of the double and triple crosses provided just enough twists to make the friends and foes always in a state of limbo.
Of course, a Mission: Impossible movie is always going to be a Mission: Impossible movie. I’ve enjoyed them for many years for all the reasons stated above. However, if it’s not your thing, then you’ll probably be bored with the same old car chases, just in different foreign locales. At the very least, the female lead (Hayley Atwell) for this film was an excellent addition to the team, as it came with some weighty decisions on her part. I’m definitely interested to see how they conclude this two-part movie when Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning (Part 2) comes out next year.
Another exciting half-entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise, I give Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning (Part 1) 4.0 stars out of 5.
