REVIEW: Mission Impossible Deadly Judgment Part 1
The action genre rises again, perhaps with more style than in the past. It has taken four movies for director Christopher McQuarrie to really reconcile form with substance. And while one might believe that there is nothing beyond Tom Cruise’s daring sequences, Mission Impossible: Deadly Judgment – Part One (95%) demonstrates a narrative maturity that had been lacking in the franchise and that, hand in hand with motorcycles, explosions and cliffs, make it one of the pillars of the action genre.
Cruise) must stop the spread of an artificial intelligence program that poses a danger to all of humanity. However, the predictability of his decisions will threaten not only his goal, but his friends. And unfortunately for him, Grace (Hayley Atwell), a thief, will make things more difficult for him. That’s what Mission Impossible: Deadly Judgment – Part One (95%) is about.
Taking the philosophical questions about determinism that Westworld (75%) came to raise in its best moments, although using them as a pretext to delve into its characters rather than to dissect based on his ideas, Mission Impossible 7 takes a subtle, but welcome, sci-fi twist that adds substance to some of its already exemplary action sequences. The result is a nearly impeccable editing and adrenaline-pumping film that also raises social questions about the use of artificial intelligence.
Viewers will surely be eager to see Cruise’s highly publicized motorcycle cliff launch. Nothing will be more to the public’s taste than knowing that this is one of at least three amazing moments. Although there are rare occasions in which the edition cuts the fluidity of its action with somewhat extended ellipses, in general one can only be amazed by the courage that its entire cast displayed to film shots that allow each act to be taken from its best angle.
The biggest disappointment in Mission Impossible: Deadly Judgment
The quick ending that a character has at the end of the second act is the biggest disappointment in Mission Impossible: Deadly Judgment. Obviously, we won’t be getting anything forward, but it feels like a waste of potential. On the contrary, another pleasant surprise in the cast is Atwell and her chemistry with Cruise. The dumbbell makes the film’s most innocent sense of humor charming and its bewilderment towards the franchise’s crazy world of espionage infects a certain freshness to the public that might already find it somewhat tired.
Returning to the most appropriate narrative sense of the film, McQuarrie, already with control over the aspects of the action, puts a couple of brilliant montages on the frame. One of them is a fight in a narrow alley shot handheld. The frenzy of the lighting and shots, as well as its setting, and the equally wonderfully sinister performance of Pom Klementieff, make this fight a clear metaphor for Hunt trapped between his past, his future and the obvious path he will choose after being trapped by the antagonist program.
The other is a sword and knife fight between Isla (Rebecca Ferguson) and Gabriel (Esai Morales), the agent of artificial intelligence, on a bridge in Venice. This sequence is shown in a game of open shots and close-ups. Taking advantage of the incomparable elegance of the execution that its performers make of the choreography, it seems almost like a lethal dance sequence that takes advantage of the beauty and gloom of the European city at night.
Perhaps best achieved, among the recent franchises that split in two its installments, like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (92%) or Dune (75%), Mission Impossible: Death Judgment – Part One (95%) feels like a complete story. The film, having conquered the art of conveying the sensation of risk, strove to take an often underestimated genre to try to give it substance and in view of its purpose of dismantling the idea of being “brainless action” there is nothing more to say: mission accomplished. The movie is already in theaters.
Continue reading: Hayley Atwell says that there is no comparison between Marvel and Mission Impossible
