Mission: Impossible 7 -- Dead Reckoning

Synopsis in 3 sentences or less:

Ethan is tasked with retrieving two halves of a key that unlocks "The Entity," a powerful AI computer that can help dominate the world. 

Memorable Quote:
So just how do you plan on getting out of here? Of course.  ~Kittridge

Highlight:

The blond villain-turned-ally lady is a cool character.  

Lowlight:

The train-crashing scene at the end could have been cut. At this point of the movie I was ready for it to be over, and the scene was too long, too CGI'ed, and too unrealistic. 

Most interesting piece of IMDB trivia:

Footage was released of Tom Cruise's next big stunt for this film, which involved riding a motorcycle off a cliff and parachuting to a moving train. A years worth of preparation went into the stunt, with Cruise performing over 500 skydives to learn how to control himself in the air, and practicing jumping his motorcycle off a purpose built practice ramp after clocking up over 13,000 jumps on a motocross track. When it came to filming, the only CGI used for the scene was to digitally erase the ramp Cruise launched from. Cruise performed six takes of the jump.

Other thoughts, observations, and questions I didn’t ask when I was in fourth grade:

• A 2 hour and 46 minute movie -- time to get comfy! 
• Nice to see Kittridge again. Fun character and well acted.  
• 23:23 mark:
• "I understand you're upset." ~Kittridge
• "I'm not upset, Kittridge." ~Ethan
• Nice callback to MI1 where Ethan said "You've never seen me very upset."
• 30 minutes in and we're still seeing opening credits on the screen. 
• Who needs The Entity when you have Luther's tech that can change people's faces, do instant facial recognition, unlock airport doors, etc. 
• The cipher riddle bomb at the airport was interesting but random and underdeveloped -- would have been fun to see more of that later in the movie. 
• Ethan profiling Grace as an orphan is reminsicent of Casino Royale, and their being handcuffed together during the chase is reminiscent of Tomorrow Never Dies. 
• I usually find car chases to be a bit boring, but this one is pretty good -- some humor, cool setting, and well filmed. 
• 1:32:27 - one of the several obligatory Cruise movie sprinting scenes. You'd think that sprinting at an olympic pace in dress shoes would lead to foot pain, or at least some blisters. 
• Regarding the motorcycle jump off the mountain, I generally am very anti-CGI and much prefer more realistic-looking scenes and sets. In this case though, what's the point. Like one whole year, 500 skydives, and 13,000 motorcycle jumps -- why not just put in a little CGI, save everyone some time, and call it a day. As it is, the scene looks kind of CGI to me anyway.
• I didn't know until the end credits that the corrupt government guy was Cary Elwes. 

Final Analysis:

As with the previous movie, this one doesn't do much for me. The characters are undeveloped and the plot is unclear (though to be fair I haven't seen MI8 yet so maybe things are explained more there), like who is Gabriel. what happened between him and Ethan in the past, what is The Entity, and who is Grace and what motivates her. And Ilsa has been in three movies now and I still don't feel like I know her or understand her motivations either. It's very close between this one and MI6 -- I'll put this one just slightly higher on the list.