‘Mission: Impossible 7’ First Reactions: Tom Cruise Conquers Critics With ‘Impeccably Made,’ ‘Exhilarating’ Action Film

“Mission:Impossible–Dead Reckoning Part One” was finally unveiled at a starry world premiere in Rome on Monday evening, drawing a packed gala screening in the Auditorium della Conciliazione, a stone’s throw from the Vatican.

The gala screening was delayed by more than 90 minutes as Tom Cruise was holding an apparently impromptu meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the Palazzo Chigi, seat of the Italian government.

The crowd in the auditorium grew increasingly annoyed with having to watch interviews from the red carpet held earlier on the Spanish Steps in what started seeming like an endless loop on the venue’s screen, equipped with a Dolby Atmos sound system for the special occasion.

However there was warm applause when Cruise, director Christopher McQuarrie, and a large contingent of the film’s ensemble – including Hayley Atwell; Rebecca Ferguson; Simon Pegg; Vanessa Kirby; Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Shea Whigham and Greg Tarzan Davis – finally arrived.

And as soon as Rome appeared on screen the audience started breakinginto cheers and shouting out: “Bravo Tom!” which happened quite frequently through the screening.

The event was held in tandem with the Rome Film Festival’s independently run Alice in the City section, dedicated to films for youth audiences.The film’s local distributor is Eagle Pictures, which has a local distribution partnership with Paramount. A substantial amount of the hotly anticipated action film was shot in the Italian capital.

“Dead Reckoning Part One” follows the events of “Fallout,” where Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his crew of secret agents saved the world from a nuclear apocalypse amid a series of double-crosses. The 2018 release was the highest-grossing entry in the franchise yet, earning nearly $800 million at the global box office.

The new film stars Cruise once again, alongside returning franchise players Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Henry Czerny and Vanessa Kirby. Series newcomers include Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Cary Elwes, Rob Delaney, Indira Varma, Shea Whigham, Mark Gatiss, Esai Morales and Charles Parnell.

As expected, the film drew strong notices out of its premiere for its impressive stunts. One of the most prominent death-defying acts pushed in the marketing features Cruise actually riding a motorcycle off the edge of a cliff.

Simon Pegg, who returns for “Dead Reckoning” after featuring in the previous five installments told PvNew that the film’s core is the rapport between Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie, which began in 2011 with “Ghost Protocol” on which McQuarrie served as an uncredited writer.

“It’s become a kind of self-perpetuating evolving relationship where they’ve just egged each other on and challenged each other to move the story forward; to increase the scale; increase the ambition,” Pegg pointed out.

The seventh “Mission: Impossible” entry will be released by Paramount on July 12. See reactions to the film below.

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff said it was “another winner for the franchise” with production values “through the roof” and “well-defined and exhilarating set pieces.”

Uproxx writer Mike Ryan said “‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ works as Christopher McQuarrie’s ambitious examination of/meditation on AI and the dangerous path we might be on.”

Screenrant’s Joe Deckelmeier said “Hayley Atwell STEALS every scene she’s in.”

Gizmodo and io9 writer Germain Lussier called it “fantastic,” with a final set piece ranking in the top two to three of the franchise, despite being “a little dense at times.”

Indiewire executive editor Kate Erbland said “it does the best job yet of recent part 1 of 2 features in feeling like its own film while setting up for the next half.”

Fandango’s Erik Davis called it “an impeccably made action film that does not stop entertaining.”

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