Tom Cruise returns to the role of Ethan Hunt for this latest Mission Impossible film directed by Christopher McQuarrie. But does it win over the critics?
The Guardian: *** “Over two-and-a-half hours, you get a lot of deafening bangs for your buck, and the tourist location stunts are impressive – but there isn’t as much humour in the dialogue as before.”
Hollywood Reporter: “McQuarrie, the first director ever asked to return for seconds behind the camera on this franchise, succeeds in establishing and more or less maintaining the ideal tone, one that fuses sufficient self-aware humor with the ever-more-outlandish set pieces so as to encourage the audience to enjoy them for what they are — some of the most extreme, sustained and dangerous-looking stunt-reliant action scenes ever assembled.”
Variety: “McQuarrie believes in creating coherent set-pieces: His combat scenes are tense, muscular, and clean, shot and edited in such a way that the spatial geography makes sense. He places audiences just over Cruise’s shoulder, or staring into the actor’s face as he grimaces with exertion. Ethan Hunt has never met an impossible mission, and yet, audiences need to believe that this one could get away from him for the thrill to work.”
Digital Spy: **** “It’s hard to see how they can top it, but we’ve thought that before in this series and happily been proven wrong. There does feel to be a sense of finality about Fallout, yet we imagine the only thing impossible about the movies at this stage is believing there’s any stunt Cruise would look at and go, ‘Nah, that’s too much for me’.”
IGN: “As hugely entertaining as many of the action set-pieces are here — particularly the brutal bathroom brawl, the HALO jump, the Parisian motorcycle chase, and the helicopter battle — none of them prove as breathtaking or as memorable as the franchise’s biggest past standout moments, such as the CIA vault break-in, Ethan climbing the Burj Khalifa or clinging to the side of an ascending cargo plane.”
Den of Geek: **** “It’s to Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s credit that, six films in, we can easily imagine Cruise returning to the Hunt role a couple more times.”
The Telegraph: ***** “When Cruise is clambering around St Paul’s, over the top of Blackfriars Bridge and right the way to the summit of the Tate Modern, it’s oddly beautiful to watch London geography being so crisply respected, even while it’s being used as a giant and ludicrous plaything.”
Express.co.uk: ***** “the best way of describing Mission Impossible – Fallout is that it beautifully balances the different tones and story-telling techniques from the last five films; learning from past mistakes and bringing together all the great aspects enjoyed by fans over the last two decades.”
The Independent: *** “replete with truly outstanding action sequences but marred by the most convoluted M:I plot to date.”
The Times: **** “A long-running and often erratic spy franchise, once in danger of dwindling into wearisome repetition, soars back to stratospheric heights in this sixth and most satisfying instalment yet.”
The Mirror: ***** “It’s hard to imagine how the franchise can top this terrific action romp, but then again we did say that last time.”
The Metro: **** “In a summer of forgettable blockbusters, Mission: Impossible Fallout is a welcome reminder of the unbeatable thrills found in old fashioned methods. It never drifts from the formula you’d expect, but when the end product is this gleefully entertaining and riotously action-packed, you’ll be hoping Tom Cruise has many more running sequences left in the tank. This year’s summer smash? You bet.”
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is in cinemas from the 25th July.