- Sensibility: In the other films in the franchise, the miraculous survivals were because the bad guys couldn't aim. Here, Hunt repeatedly survives explosions, g-forces, and hypothermia. The problem is that physics can't miss.
Add on top of this some strange behavior from Ethan Hunt, the government, and the Entity and there are a lot of things working to break the suspension of disbelief. Also, the fastest human reaction time ever recorded in human history
is over 100 milliseconds: they couldn't even make this small, irrelevant aspect of the plot feasible.
- Cinematography: The production design, costuming, and framing for two sequences in the film, the diving and submarine sequence and the plane hopping sequence, are brilliant and probably
the best sequences of the entire franchise. However, the rest of the film
is terribly disappointing. Every other set in the film is some modification of a cave. This is visually unappealing, lit poorly, and doesn't add anything valuable to the story.
- Energy: The first half is quite dull, but then the film ramps up to a huge high with the underwater diving and keeps that energy flowing through to the end.
- Narrative: By far the weakest part of this film is the narrative. The film tries to connect all the previous films, but this doesn't work because the films don't function well as sequels. The dialogue is the worst of the franchise, using every cliche in the book.
Every interaction is soaked in a miserable layer of melodrama beyond reason. This cheapens the film and makes it harder to take seriously. The scene where Ethan Hunt communicates directly with the Entity
is irrational and is a conspicuous attempt to force some sort of nostalgia through a montage of the previous films. The set-up for Luther is non-sensical melodrama that is, of course, filled with painfully corny dialogue.
The cherry on top is the scenes surrounding the U.S. government officials which are dull and turn out to be completely pointless. The film's push to bring beloved characters as close to death as possible without
actually letting them die creates plot holes and is a shoddy method for increasing stakes without having any narrative consequences. The Entity's restraint while in control of nuclear powers feels
ridiculous and the Entity's desire to 'survive' is a crude anthropomorphization of something that should be cold and calculating. Finally, the pointlessly added death that brought Ethan to 'make the choice' to join the IMF that
was introduced in the last film is still irrelevant in this film and is left completely unexplained.
- T-Points: The film received three bonus points: one for the jaw-dropping diving and rolling submarine sequence, one for the visually stunning resurection of hunt from the ice, and one for the plane hopping sequence.
This film is a pretty serious misfire. The film pushes too hard for the heavy-hitting emotional moments that the film turns melodramatic. The film takes too long to get anywhere interesting,
but there are a few moments that are probably the most visually interesting of the entire franchise.
Number of Watches: 1
