Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One
Release Year: 2023
Synopsis: Ethan Hunt and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of the future and the world's fate at stake and dark forces from Ethan's past closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by a mysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan must consider that nothing can matter more than his mission—not even the lives of those he cares about most.
My notes
Annual rewatch
The injection of lore is a bit off putting this late in the franchise, but it makes sense when viewed against the AI, free will/choice vs determinism. The creativity of film making vs the predictive, predictable AI.
Tone drifts between comedy and drama. Dialogue is often so meta that it's distracting, and the direction apes MI:1 to an alarming and ineffective degree.
Still, it pushes the franchise towards it's final conclusion and despite the nearly 3 hour run time, it's never dull. Solid pacing and a coherent narrative that feels very much like the first half of a story.