An empty, meaningless title for what I found to be an empty meaningless movie - and this is only part one?!
I grew up watching as a boy the original TV series but have long ago accepted that this cinematic "Cruise-controlled" version bears almost no relation to what was originally a tightly-scripted, plot-led and character-driven show. Yes, there are still nods to the source with the use of the theme music, dizzying pre-highlights reel and the masks, my God the masks, but these are perfunctory and what we have now is a pumped-up beyond all recognition stunt-fest staged in exotic locations - this time around say hello to Rome, Venice and the Orient Express.
Here, Ethan and his team are racing around daft trying to track down a new invention called "The Entity" which naturally guarantees world domination to its eventual owner. Cue much mayhem as one unlikely action set-piece is piled onto another, including the obligatory crazy motorbike / car-chase, this time around Rome, a frantic on-foot pursuit through the side-streets of Venice and culminating in mayhem on the Orient Express, with Cruise literally crash-landing to the rescue before the celebrated train goes literally off the rails and down in instalments at the supposed cliff-hanging ending.
For me, it was all way too much and just came across as a massive ego-trip for Cruise determined to prove he can still run like the wind (and yes, he gets to run a lot as ever) and personally carry out every other out-there stunt imaginable. In the end, I felt jaded rather than exhilarated by a movie which just didn't know when to stop. The next impossible mission it seems to me, should he decide to accept it, will be when Tom, like the MCU and DCU, has to face up to the realisation that times have changed and that audiences are now fatigued by over-the-top action features like this.
More really is less in this case.
I grew up watching as a boy the original TV series but have long ago accepted that this cinematic "Cruise-controlled" version bears almost no relation to what was originally a tightly-scripted, plot-led and character-driven show. Yes, there are still nods to the source with the use of the theme music, dizzying pre-highlights reel and the masks, my God the masks, but these are perfunctory and what we have now is a pumped-up beyond all recognition stunt-fest staged in exotic locations - this time around say hello to Rome, Venice and the Orient Express.
Here, Ethan and his team are racing around daft trying to track down a new invention called "The Entity" which naturally guarantees world domination to its eventual owner. Cue much mayhem as one unlikely action set-piece is piled onto another, including the obligatory crazy motorbike / car-chase, this time around Rome, a frantic on-foot pursuit through the side-streets of Venice and culminating in mayhem on the Orient Express, with Cruise literally crash-landing to the rescue before the celebrated train goes literally off the rails and down in instalments at the supposed cliff-hanging ending.
For me, it was all way too much and just came across as a massive ego-trip for Cruise determined to prove he can still run like the wind (and yes, he gets to run a lot as ever) and personally carry out every other out-there stunt imaginable. In the end, I felt jaded rather than exhilarated by a movie which just didn't know when to stop. The next impossible mission it seems to me, should he decide to accept it, will be when Tom, like the MCU and DCU, has to face up to the realisation that times have changed and that audiences are now fatigued by over-the-top action features like this.
More really is less in this case.