What a trickily punctuated title. Someone must regret that the original had a colon. Anyway, since the past three sequels had been going strong and Christopher McQuarrie was still directing, I figured it was a worthy way to fill an evening. Kinda surprised there weren't more people in my theater on its U.S. debut.
What can possibly challenge Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) anymore, when even age doesn't seem to slow him down? An online AI gone self-aware and rogue, now known only as "the Entity," has been infiltrating all kinds of sensitive information systems. Ethan's mission is to collect the two halves of a key that promises access to the Entity somewhere, but once he understands that the government wants to control rather than destroy the Entity, he himself goes rogue. Not only does he once again have Impossible Missions Force support only from Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg), with the rest of the IMF after them, but they can't rely much on their state-of-the-art equipment with the Entity compromising things. To make matters worse, sadistic terrorist Gabriel (Esai Morales), a personal foe from before Ethan joined the IMF, is serving the Entity's interest.
Never has an M:I film felt more timely to me, which is impressive considering the pandemic pause in its development. With rapid advances in AI and increasingly voiced concerns, we needed a computerized villain more subtle than Skynet from the Terminator series or the Master Control Program from Tron. The Entity is aptly described as "everywhere and nowhere." It demonstrates deep knowledge of the heroes, often predicting their moves but rarely attempting communication. And it knows how to manipulate people less corrupt than Gabriel into playing into its hands, almost like a technological One Ring. So this is what it took to bring the IMF/CIA director (Henry Czerny) from the first movie back into the spotlight. About the only plus side for Ethan is that multiple parties want the key, so they sometimes fight each other as well.
OK, there is one new helper, however tentative: Grace (Hayley Atwell), a seasoned sneak thief who gets Ethan's attention by robbing him. I hadn't realized that all IMF members were former criminals who joined for a better deal, kind of like the Suicide Squad with more generous perks. Because of this, Ethan sees strong potential in Grace, but she's not exactly gung ho about it.
I think this is the M:I entry with the most female presence overall. Apart from Grace, Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) and the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby) return, and Gabriel has a freaky French henchwoman (Pom Klementieff). But don't expect a "girl power" fest, because none of them ever upstage Ethan.
Indeed, the filmmakers know to keep enough the same for preexisting fans' satisfaction. The action's as thrilling and semi-credible as it ever was. If not for the late hour, I could have sat through the second part already. My main warning is that a familiar character dies, but it's not the next No Time to Die. It spends little time on mourning.
If you watch one action flick from this summer whose star can get a senior discount, let it be this. You probably know what other I have in mind.
Two great lines : “whose star can get a senior discount “ And “someone must regret that the orinal had a colon.”
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