— पांच हजार आठ सौ उन्नीस —
Last night was pretty much entirely taken up by going to a movie and then writing the review: for
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
Kind of at the last minute (figuratively speaking—we had like eight hours), Shobhit decided he wanted to join. He texted me at first to ask if it was sold out, which in the end turned out to be a laughable proposition: by 8:00 yesterday morning, the 4:00 p.m. showtime had all of fourteen seats booked. Predictably there were more booked by the time the movie started, but not many. And when Shobhit and I were walking home afterward, I looked up the 7:45 p.m. showtime and only about 15 seats were booked there too—I had assumed more would have been.
Granted, as has been the case for years now, today is the published opening date but there were first-screenings yesterday afternoon. I just checked tonight's 6:15 showtime at AMC Pacific Place, and that one has 43 seats booked. That's a lot more than last night's numbers, but still 43 seats in a theater with a capacity of 284. So, all of 15% of the seats for that showtime have been booked.
I think it's pretty safe to say the
Mission: Impossible franchise is running out of steam. It was safe to say that in 2023, when
Dead Reckoning was released, and was the first slight downturn compared to previous installments since the second film was released in 2000. I remember when I watched the early ones the first time, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed
III (released 2006), and then
Ghost Protocol (2011),
Rogue Nation (2015) and
Fallout (2018) were all fantastic.
It took another five years before we got
Dead Reckoning—the second-longest stretch between films in the franchise, though never by design: it was originally scheduled for release in July 2021, which would have duplicated the three-year break between the fifth and sixth films. In the end, it wasn't released until two years later, delays related to both the pandemic and ultimately ceding a major release date to another massive Tom Cruise movie,
Top Gun: Maverick (which was widely credited as ushering in the return of movie-going post-pandemic).
I've been listening to
The Big Picture podcast about the new film this morning, and they talk a lot about how unfortunate it was that they felt they needed to split
Dead Reckoning into two films. These two are far more directly linked as film-plus-sequel than any of the others ever were, and I definitely agree with the notion that they would have been far better as one film, significantly pared down, than they are as two films which, combined, amount to a run time of five hours and 32 minutes. This works incredibly well for
Dune; not so much for
Mission: Impossible.
And yet! I actually enjoyed this new film a bit more than the last one. At least the special effects were better. The two extended signature setpieces (a rolling flooded submarine, and a biplane chase) are jaw-droppingly amazing. The plot is basically trash, more so even than the previous films, but I don't even care because the stunt work is alone worth the price of admission. I agree with
The Big Picture that this one needed more of the humor of previous films and is too self-serious, but once we finally slog through a solid hour of convoluted exposition, it's truly thrilling. I appear to be in the minority on this, but I thought the submarine sequence was spectacular and I enjoyed it more than the biplane chase. This is because the biplane chase exists only to impress us with stunning stunt work, but the submarine sequence actually uses incredibly clever camera work, is mostly silent, and is truly suspenseful. I was literally on the edge of my seat.
Anyway. I have a lot to say about this movie, clearly, even as it's obviously flawed. I still gave it a B+. I vacillated between that and a solid B, which was what I gave
Dead Reckoning, but the setpieces in this one really upped the ante for me. The films prior to
Dead Reckoning are still better, but unlike the majority of other critics, I liked this one better than
Dead Reckoning.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ उन्नीस —
— पांच हजार आठ सौ उन्नीस —
Alexia and Shobhit and I all met outside the AMC at Pacific Place, all coming from different directions. I rode my bike from work; Shobhit walked from home; Alexia drove in from home in Issaquah. She got a bit stuck in traffic, and was very apologetic about being late, but she arrived at 4:02 for a 4:00 showtime and we all knew there would be a bunch of trailers. She bought a giant bucket of popcorn for us all to share, and the cashier was very nice and provided extra bags for Shobhit and me to pour popcorn into from Alexia's bucket.
Alexia had been up since something like 3:45 a.m., I think she said. She had sent me an email an hour after that, and I was amazed she was up and doing shit like that at 4:45. I could tell from brief interactions this week that she must be under some stress, and she told us how hard her work week has been after getting back from a wonderful vacation last week, right after which a guy she had just hired suddenly withdrew his acceptance of the job. She's clearly got way too much on her plate with her job right now, which keeps changing and she seems to be very much looking forward to retiring in the next year or two.
She was understandably very tired by the time this incredibly long movie finally ended—its length being the very reason I went for the 4:00 show rather than 6:15, as I wanted to actually have the time to write my review. We all went down to the garage together, as that was where I parked my bike. We said our goodbyes in the garage, and then I walked my bike home along with Shobhit walking the rest of the way home from there. I actually opted not to ride my bike today, because Shobhit and I are meeting at Seattle Center right after work for the Folklife Festival, and will go home together after that as well.
It was nearly 9:30 by the time I had my review written, posted, and shared to my socials. Now I'm looking at yet another very busy weekend, a holiday weekend at that, plenty of stuff planned tonight, tomorrow, Sunday
and Monday. I also have movie plans Tuesday, and Wednesday (Action Movie Night), and maybe Thursday if the movie I have on the calendar is even playing by then. Friday next week I leave for the weekend on Fox Island with Gabriel, his brother, and two other friends of his, and I'm really looking for that getaway, which should be much more chill, actually, than most days for me.
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I just had my Zoom lunch with Karen, which is supposed to be biweekly but more often than not is becoming monthly—she had a scheduling conflict two weeks ago and had to cancel; two weeks from now I'll be in Washington, D.C. so I won't see here again until June 20. But, even thoug we already talked about some of these things ages ago when Shobhit and I first decided we would go to D.C. for World Pride this year, she reminded me of a few smaller points of interest she recommends. I was more than happy to jot them down.
Karen has never lived in D.C., but in her capacity working with national agencies or being on the National Accessibility Board, she has spent a
lot of time there and so probably knows more about the cool stuff to see than anyone else I know. She said to me, "I really love D.C.," and noted that, conservative federal government currently in power notwithstanding, not only is Washington as a city notably progressive, but so are the "career employees" (as she put it) of the government who have worked there for ages, across multiple administrations.
I also mentioned my trip to Fox Island next weekend, and she told mer her firm will be doing accessibility consulting for a park there! That was pretty cool.
Anyway I'm going to post this so I can get back to work now.
— पांच हजार आठ सौ उन्नीस —
[posted 1:12pm]
