Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One follows Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt as he and his cohorts must track down two pieces of a world-changing key before various others. It’s a larger-than-life premise that’s employed to entertaining yet slightly disappointing effect by McQuarrie, as the filmmaker, armed with his and Erik Jendresen’s screenplay, delivers a mostly-propulsive actioner that does, within its bloated 163 minute (!) runtime, contain its fair share of missteps and needless sequences – with this especially true of a decent yet forgettable midsection that’s overflowing with tiresome exposition and somewhat generic high-octane set-pieces. (There are, in terms of the latter, a been-there-done-that car chase and foot pursuit that are hardly as exciting or enthralling as other similar interludes within this long-running series.) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is, then, at its best during its energetic, innovative opening and closing stretches, as McQuarrie does a terrific job of suffusing the proceedings with one eye-popping (and thoroughly captivating) action beat after another – including an spellbinding early scene set within a busy airport and a train-bound climax that ensures the film ends on a completely engrossing note. (And of course, the movie benefits substantially from the predictably top-tier efforts of Cruise and his various costars.) The final result is a consistently watchable blockbuster that fares better than the majority of similarly-themed contemporary releases, although, by that same token, it’s ultimately impossible not to compare the picture to its masterful, near flawless immediate predecessor.

*** out of ****