The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Maybe if this film had been made and released two decades ago, before the entirety of the superhero splurge, I might have watched it thinking, wow, they really made something amazing here. But we cannot undo these things we’ve done, as someone once said, and the effect of having seen superhero group after superhero group after superhero group save the world again and again and again cannot be easily nullified. As it is, no amount of interesting conceptual design, or nostalgic kicks, or even just plain, good storytelling and performances, can get this work to break through against all that has come before it and lead the viewer to anything more than mild appreciation, to a diminished admiration that battles against a flattened sense of what a movie like this is supposed to be. It’s fine, really; all of the above mentioned elements are well done, and if you’d never seen another entry in the genre you’d probably rave about this one. But few of us out here are infants without prior experience, so the impact of this iteration is very much dulled. More standard than fantastic. 

Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One

A previous review link suggested that, perhaps, this series’ prior outing might be the last of its breed, if only because Tom Cruise has been doing this for so long that the exercise can’t possibly maintain particular interest going forward. Well, I guess here’s the proof that I was, shall we say, dead wrong. Apparently, the man and his crew have an inexhaustible ability to wring entertainment out of this concept. The stunts—in many ways the raison d’etre of this franchise—are up to the usual level of audacity. The plot is relatively clear, and rather timely, even if it drags its concept to a certain outlandish extreme. As for the human elements, I admit that there have been so many personnel twists and turns so far in the series that I’ve forgotten quite a bit about who is whom among the crew, beyond the core members of the team—Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg inhabit characters who are indelibly well-defined—but that really doesn’t matter for enjoying this flick. The experience is about just letting all the hyperkinetic chicanery wash over you, appreciating the awesomeness of those stunts and the cleverness of the setups while relishing the laughs scattered throughout the not-taking-itself-too-seriously script. At that level, it’s no wonder the thing keeps working. MI is pretty much as immortal and unkillable as Ethan Hunt himself—there’s always some escape to be made, some new ledge to leap onto and keep the thing climbing or running or scrambling its way forward. That, the fact of this franchise’s eternally entertaining nature, is a mission—or at least an enticement—that moviegoers have long since learned to accept. The thing couldn’t self-destruct even if it wanted to.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

An acceptable level of audacity. After taking a bit of a dip in the previous outing, this installment -- almost a direct continuation of the previous film’s storyline -- rises up once again to a most satisfying height of mayhem, twists and turns, and hanging by a fingernail intensity. And, as an added bonus, the script injects an element of emotional depth into the proceedings, in the person of our hero’s former flame, a piece of his puzzle that had been building in the previous outings, but only becomes fully realized as a key component here. Adding that to the already expert execution of all the great spy movie must-haves -- outrageous action, world-class locations, eye-popping settings, and a hint of aplomb and cool humor -- solidifies this flick as both another fine and fun entry in the series, and a representative example of the franchise as a whole. This one has a certain valedictory air to it, as if this may be Cruise's last go-around as Ethan Hunt; if so, it’s a worthy way to say sayonara to what is, in many ways, a career-defining body of work. Impossible or not, I’m willing to declare this mission more than just accomplished. Bravo.