Movies

Watched this earlier today and I really think my expectations were too high. I love this series and every entry has been better than the last. Fallout is one of my favorite action movies ever and I think I was just too hyped for this. It wasn't disappointing but it just didn't hit me like I thought it would. Also I saw that bike stunt so many times already that it skewed my excitement for it.

I do feel a little weird about killing off Ilsa and kinda replacing her with Grace. Felt like Ilsa was too overpowered and they wanted a more inexperienced team member. But the fight between Ilsa and Gabriel was pretty meh. I know that wanted to show that Gabriel was a huge threat to her and a great fighter, but it just felt like Ilsa was holding back. Haley Atwell was great, though. Her character felt very real in this universe.

That being said, I enjoyed it immensely. It was a wild ride all the way though. And I'm happy this part felt like a complete story arc and now we have the big threat to deal with for the next one. This movie is definitely not going to make the general public feel any better about AI.

Gabriel was a good villain, but he didn't come off as terrifying as I would have liked. I think a lot of it is just that he's a "new" character. Sean Harris as Solomon Lane in the previous movies was absolutely terrifying to me with how calm he always was. Gabriel felt a little forced to me, like the movie kept telling how badass he was, but not really showing.

I loved seeing Kittridge again and the whole meeting scene with Ethan in the mask was so tense. I kept expecting that guy to be a Terminator or something. I don't think he blinked once. And the conversation with Kittridge and Ethan was a good callback with the "I understand you're very upset" line.

This movie was a lot more tense IMO than others, at least the first half. It felt like anything could happen throughout a lot of it. The action was great, but as I said I just kept waiting for it to blow me away and I think I over-hyped it for myself. I still had a lot of fun and can't wait for the next one even though I think I like Fallout a little better.

I really loved the movie. Pom is so badass as Paris. I'm really happy she survive and we will probably see more of her in the part 2.

There was more humor during the movie and I liked it. The car scenes with the Fiat were funny.

I don't understand the plot, can you please explain?

The goober. The countries want it to control them. Ethan wants it so we can destroy the entity. Why does Gabriel(the entity) want it ?

Why can't the entity nuke Rome when two parts of the key are on Rome(or Venice) and be done with it.

Ona side note,am all knowing entity can't get to its own source code or recreate it ? I have a feeling that the entity wants Ethan to get the key for some unknown reason.

This felt like Age of Ultron without the Avengers. If there was something like the Entity in the real world, it would’ve wiped everyone off in a manner of seconds I feel like. But again that’s a little nitpicky at the end of the day because it’s a spy movie.

To be honest the movie was a little disappointing coming off 4, 5, 6 which were some of the best spy movies I’ve seen in a while (Fallout especially). It’s definitely not a bad movie but I had some gripes. Killing off Ilsa just felt like a bad decision, they built her up the past couple movies but all of sudden dropped her like it was nothing. The reaction after the death made no sense to me where the characters (especially Ethan) seemed to be fairly indifferent. I’m hoping this is a fakeout for the sequel where she will come back. It’s either that or Cruise and McQuarrie felt some type of way that Rebecca Ferguson had Silo and Dune already booked but that’s just speculation. Even Renner and Angela Basset are still alive in universe with their conflicts filming.

I was also not a huge fan of Grace’s character. Half the movie felt like Ethan just having to deal with her fuck ups and weird selfishness. You have someone trying to protect you and you’re ditching him and fucking him over every five minutes (I don’t think this is an exaggeration). Gabriel saying it’s either Ilsa or Grace you have to save felt out of left field; one is his romantic partner and the other is some random person he had maybe half an hour of interaction with. If I was Cruise and saw Grace’s antics constantly screwing over the team and getting Ilsa killed, I would not trust her with anything. Yet they’re clearly setting her up to be his future LI. Her “redemption” where she doesn’t take the money was also poorly done. Logically her declining the money also doesn’t make sense especially regarding suspicion. Why would she do that? She could’ve continued the mission regardless.

Gabriel was also a very disappointing villain. Not sure why we had to build this adversary from Ethan’s past we’ve had no clue about until this movie. I actually loved him in Titans as Deathstroke so he definitely has charisma. His writing was just poor and shallow and I just don’t care about him especially after Cavill and Sean Harris.

Positives though, action was great. Again not as good as the previous movies but still very well done. The core team of Luther, Benji, and Ethan’s chemistry is still as great as ever. Paris was great and loved this role for Pom (huge departure from Mantis). Can’t wait to see her in the next movie. Briggs and his subordinate were hilarious and their chemistry was refreshing. Speaking of which, the humor in this movie was great. This was definitely the most I’ve laughed during a MI movie that’s for sure.

Over all definitely a good movie. Just disappointing and not at the sky high level from the past three installments.

Really enjoyed this movie and thought it was a great action flick. Great action set pieces and stunts. Though I wish the motorbike stunt didn't have so much exposure prior to the movie just so that we could be in awe of it during the movie.

Still shows that this franchise does action the right way and I still think it's worlds better than the Fast and Furious franchise, at least after F6 anyway.

Can't wait for part 2!

I only just got the significance of the title, but there take wasn't a whole lot of "dead reckoning" in the film. Maybe Part 2 will have more of then "flying blind", so to speak.

In any case, I had fun with the movie. Fantastic visuals and score, great action, fun twists and turns. But to me, there are two main weak spots.

First... Gabriel. He just seems so generically bad. He's just evil because he's evil. He barely even counts as a one-dimensional character.

Second... the macguffin. Yes, it's the nature of a macguffin to be generally pointless and only exist to advance the plot. But the whole key thing doesn't make sense.

They need the original source code to take control of the Entity. But the copy on the Russian sub is neither the source code nor is it original. They admitted straight up they lost control of it, it evolved and did its own thing and sank the sub. So it's already out of control.

And the key itself! It pretty much just opens a box. Just get a damn crowbar! The AI is on the memory chips anyway! They don't need the rest of the sonar machine to work.