#MovieReview: Action cinema’s best franchise [Watch]

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One again proves that Mission: Impossible is cinema’s most reliable action franchise.

As yet another globe hopping, explosively propulsive entry into the Ethan Hunt canon, Dead Reckoning delivers pitch perfect popcorn thrills.

It has now been 27 years and six films since the indomitable Tom Cruise first donned the superspy moniker, and he remains as vital to the big screen as ever.

It is no secret that Cruise basically lives for the movies, seemingly hermetically sealing himself away until he’s called to jump off another mountain or through the windows of a moving train.

And although Dead Reckoning has the trademark franchise set pieces in spades, the audience has now been with the characters long enough to be more invested in them than the death defying action.

Mission: Impossible has expertly cast its heroes and villains over the years, mining as much from their relationships as their combat abilities.

Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson all return among other familiar faces, while a charming Hayley Atwell fits in seamlessly as the newest member of the team.

These are not spritely 30-year-olds anymore and the movie has to reckon with the fact that they will not be together forever.

It is apt, then, that their main adversary in Dead Reckoning is the biggest they’ve ever faced – big enough to stretch across two movies in fact.

Mild spoilers to follow

Dead Reckoning cashes in on public anxiety about the future of technology, using an artificial intelligence as the shadowy figure they must defeat.

‘The Entity’ is a shapeless mass with tentacles in every corner of the world that gathers so much real-time information it can all but predict the future.

It interacts with the world through an avatar, Gabriel, who is a player from Hunt’s past that has come back to haunt him.

The use of an AI enemy was always going to become commonplace in film, but ‘The Entity’ feels only partially realised in Dead Reckoning.

Of course the stakes could not be higher than preventing world domination, but the movie does miss something by not letting Hunt face off against something tangible.

Gabriel is a McGuffin that tries to solve the problem but this feels like Dead Reckoning’s weakest plot point.

Nevertheless, the rest of the movie hurtles along fast enough that you barely take notice unless you are trying to pick nits.

Given this is just part one, Dead Reckoning Part Two has the chance to solve its wrinkles and likely end Cruise’s involvement in the franchise.

Let’s hope it is a fitting end to a truly great series. Part One was a perfect anticipation builder.
Rated 13 for Violence.
4/5.

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