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It was probably to make him look younger. Instead it just made him look like a musician who still thinks his band could make it.
Lol. This is funny, but true. I think he wanted it like that. But they should have styled the longer hair...like they did in MI2, Ghost Protocol & Rogue Nation. But I just think it's what Cruise wanted in FR.
I actually think it makes him look older.
Not to the same degree, but Roger seemed to like keeping his hair longer than it should have been; I think it accentuated his age. He would have benefited from shorter cuts.
Which is mad really because it’s only supposed to be a few weeks, if that, between them I think.
Yeah he’s got a shorter trim in Bullseye in 1990 and it takes a few years off him. He doesn’t even look past playing Bond in it to me!
"I tried Tom Cruise's deadliest stunt"
It was alright; not particularly great nor was it bad. I'd imagine it's perception would be relatively similar to NTTD's among the general population.
In terms of the plot and the story telling, it drags on incredibly long and feels a bit villainless at times. The Entity as the main villain drags Ethan to South Africa but it never feels like it is chasing him down there, and in fact after the hospital bomb it doesn't really play an active part in the story other than to be vaguely threatening.
Because of this, I can't help but think it would've made more sense for Ethan to be a bit more collaborative with a lot of the actors in the story. Gabriel, the Russians, the CIA, they all do not want nuclear armegeddon: so why not let them get control momentarily and then steal it back in M:I style? I understand however the themes of the story probably wouldn't've made sense with the message.
Gabriel is less present but he is also very entertaining while on screen, and his fate does kind of sum up his role in the film.
One thing I didn't like at all was the self-referential nature of the early scenes. A self-referential line works fine, but once we start seeing clips from other films the references feel heavy handed. The reference to MI wasn't to my taste, neither was the one to MI: III. I suppose they existed to show the fallout of Ethan's actions but they are convoluted and are quickly brushed off.
The whole president story-line was also overplayed, and felt like an attempt to get their money's worth out of Angela Bassett. She does alright, but it feels like too much time is spent on her. Ultimately it doesn't even matter that she makes the right choice and her dilemma simply isn't that important. The whole fakeout with the threat on her also doesn't work because it really resolved itself with a damp squib.
Probably one of my biggest frustrations was Grace: obviously MI don't want to do romances and I think that works pretty well for the films. Ethan is always supposed to care in almost a paternal way for the rest of his team, including whoever the female lead may be. However, Grace seems naive, and heavily into Hunt. You feel if it was up to her there would be something happening. Her naivety also gets a bit grating as well: what was the point of her trying to convince the Russians? (especially if there was going to be an escape scene anyway)
I do very much the biplane sequence and the finale. It is very well done, the stakes are high, the fights are great, the stuntwork for the most part feels very real, but I think the score lets the scene down a little. I wonder whether Balfe would've gone as dramatic in the score as he did for Fallout's finale if he had gotten the job. That sort of musical flair is missing.
While it may seem like I have fair amount more criticisms than things I liked, I did have an alright time with the film and it certainly entertained me for 3 hours. I don't mind it ending there though: Cruise's age was showing and I doubt Grace or Degas would make for interesting leads in a sequel.
DRP1 didnt underperform because it was a bad movie (I like it, despite having major issues with its pacing), it just had the really bad luck of being caught in the middle of two cultural juggernauts - Oppenheimer and Barbie. Had it have been an Autumn 2023 release instead of Summer, its major competition would have been The Marvels, a Hunger Games prequel, and Taylor Swift's concert film. Better odd's I'd have said.
Such is the risk with doing a two parter, if part one doesnt succeed in the way it needs to.
In any case, I imagine McQuarrie is now glad to be rid of the series, having worked on them for a decade at great cost.
If I remember correctly, it's set three months later, because someone says that three months ago, Hunt did such-and-such thing that happened in part one.
Yeah, I think that’s a really fair assessment, I wouldn’t argue with any of your criticisms there. And yet, as you say, it’s perfectly watchable and entertaining, it’s just not without issues. And yeah, even if they hadn’t drawn a line under it to some degree, it does feel like the place to leave it as it feels like they’ve run out of steam.
Yes fair enough, I’m still not sure I could grow it that long in three months: I was a bit disappointed how long it took to grow during lockdown! :D
To be fair, FR might be the only MI film where Ethan's plan doesn't involve releasing The Dangerous Thing into the world/baddies' hands in order to take it back later! :D
And even in this one he lets the Entity get access to the thing it wants in order to trap it, not a million miles off!
You can recreate the effect with AI. I created a similar stunt by text prompt.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/DKo7gIZdNWM
Cool, huh! The technology is now realistic enough to create any stunt. And as it's all cgi so no risk to the actor, no expensive location work. Just let AI do the work. 😊