I had a pretty great time with this movie, I think. It’s a little complicated because we had a weirdly stressful experience at the theater unrelated to the film itself, so I may feel differently the next time I see the movie, but as best as I can separate the film from that: this is a lot of fun, but has maybe the dumbest plot in the franchise.
I should also rewatch the others, it’s possible I’ve simply forgotten some of the absurdities for the films I haven’t seen recently.
M:I films are always a little needlessly convoluted. There’s nothing wrong with an action movie that bills itself as a spy flick where the actual spy craft and espionage is only a shallow premise to set things in motion, but M:I tends to throw in one or two more twists or double-crosses than is necessary, mistaking confusion for a complexity it didn’t actually need to chase in the first place. That’s all fine, it’s sort of charming in its way.
Someone watched The Dark Knight and thought the problem was it didn’t lean quite hard enough into trolley problems.
The theme of Ethan being faced with a choice between his team (or the safety of some individual) and the “greater good” of his mission, and then Ethan nobly rejecting that choice and somehow usually managing both is well established at this point. Also fine, part of the charm of the series.
But in Dead Reckoning the scriptwriters just dropped all pretense of trying to justify anything by pitting Ethan Hunt against a sentient, rogue, A.I. giving them the freedom to be nakedly—well, artificial with every moral dilemma they put him through.
“The Entity” just wants Ethan to have to chose which of his friends lives or dies, and the writers don’t have to come up with a reason why.
It’s a well worn trope that can still satisfy if executed well—I’m a sucker for it every time it comes up for Captain America—but it’s never been lazier than it is here.
As a side effect, the movie also has no antagonist that we particularly care about. Henry Cavill almost stole the show as August Walker/John Lark in Fallout, first as the obnoxious and uncooperative rival agent, then as the unmasked and unhinged villain, and importantly you always knew what he wanted and why (within the limits of the aforementioned trademark M:I confusion).
Gabriel is just a guy? Who I guess likes death and suffering (which we’re told more than shown), and I guess was the first person to hurt a woman Ethan cared for, but we aren’t made to care. Beyond that his motivations are inscrutable because he seems to have no agency, he’s just as much a puppet of the script because hey, A.I.!
Ethan Hunt vs. ChatGPT just doesn’t do it for me.
And yet despite all that, there’s a ton to like about this too. It’s not going to be my favorite entry, but it’s a pretty solid contribution, and when I have more time I’ll come back and write a lengthy post about all the things I like about it too. And once I finish talking about Hayley Atwell perhaps I’ll get to the stunts.