“Such Tiresome Claptrap”: Mission Impossible 7 Gets Brutally On-Theme Review From Acclaimed Filmmaker-TGN

Warning! Minor spoilers ahead for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

Summary

• Acclaimed filmmaker Paul Schrader critiques Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, suggesting that an AI could have written the script.

• The film has otherwise received mostly positive reviews and is praised for its stunning action set pieces.

• Some fair criticisms of the movie include its somewhat generic human villain, underbaked explorations of Ethan’s past, and a particular narrative decision that undermines the impact of a late reveal.

Acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker Paul Schrader blasts Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One using one of the core themes of the movie. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the latest installment in the long-running action franchise sees Tom Cruise return as Ethan Hunt to face off against a rogue AI threat. The film has been met with mostly positive reviews, with particular praise levied at the jaw-dropping action set pieces.

Despite the generally positive response to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Schrader, who is best known for writing Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and directing The Card Counter, has shared a scathing review for the film on his Facebook page.

The director was clearly not impressed with McQuarrie and Cruise’s new collaboration, writing that the film’s script could have been AI-generated. Read Schrader’s review below:

Dead Reckoning Part One’s Criticisms Explained

The critical response to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has generally been very positive, with the film’s critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes sitting at a lofty 96%. The audience score is similarly high at 94%. Despite this, however, there have certainly been a number of fair criticisms about the latest sequel.

Mission: Impossible 7‘s human villain, Gabriel (Esai Morales), is somewhat generic, with the film raising more questions about him than it answers. His partnership with The Entity, for example, isn’t really explained, and it’s not clear what his motivations are. At least part of this is by design, with the film’s story set to continue in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, which McQuarrie has previously teased will provide more answers.

The film’s brief foray into Ethan’s past and the introduction of Marie (Mariela Garriga), too, feels somewhat underbaked. One could also make the argument that opening Mission: Impossible 7 with the submarine sequence was a poor decision, with the audience then narratively ahead of Ethan and his team for the rest of the runtime. Ethan finally learning of the Sevastopol submarine at the end of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, then, doesn’t really have as much of an impact because it was already revealed to audiences at the start.

Source: Paul Schrader/ Facebook

Key Release Dates

• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two