I saw an ad for a special showing of the new Mission Impossible VIII movie. This one was supposed to be for IMAX with no trailers beforehand – not that I mind watching trailers, really, if I get there on time to see them. Sometimes they’re sort of interesting; but I wanted to show Tom, not that he’s ever really going to notice, that I – *I* am a particularly loyal fan; and of course *I* would go to a *special* fan show.
I fantasize a lot about Tom. In this fantasy, he was going to pick out the first person to book the fan show in every theater in the country and then choose one at random to meet and it would be me. LOL
That didn’t happen. Not that I really thought it would.
And, naturally, because I always am, I was late. I was afraid I was going to miss part of the beginning of the movie, but it turned out there was at least one trailer. I saw it. It was a Superman trailer. I didn’t know they were coming out with another Superman movie. It wasn’t with Chris Reeve – it couldn’t have been – he’s dead after all; and before that he was paralyzed. I know a lot of people like Cavill. I see him come up quite often as a suggested video on Instagram. They must realize that a lot of people who are interested in Tom Cruise, like me, also are interested in him; but I’m not, really, because I haven’t seen one of his Superman movies. Maybe I should.
There is sort of a tradition that bad things happen to actors who play Superman. If I do go to the new Superman movie, and something bad happens to that actor, it’s going to be painful; if I get attached to him, which I suppose I would. That’s the whole idea. Superman is really intense beefcake.
Anyway, I saw a bit of the end of the Superman trailer, which reassured me that I hadn’t missed any of Mission Impossible VIII, though of course I did later, when I had to go to the bathroom. I’m an old lady. I have to go to the bathroom once an hour. A two hour and 49 minute movie means that I’m going to have to go to the bathroom a couple of times. That means I miss things.
They started out by saying the movie had been made for IMAX, so they were glad I was seeing it in IMAX. Most of the way through the movie, I realized that the seat I had chosen was probably not ideal for watching the full experience. I tend to sit in the back corner, because I’m a germaphobe. I figure there’s nobody breathing on me in the back corner. Therefore I’m less likely to get sick. I was also wearing a mask.
Actually, I needed the mask, because the theater was freezing – for warmth. I was wearing a heavy winter vest — also a sweater and heavy socks. I was happy that I found some fingerless gloves in the pocket of the vest, to help me feel less freezing. I really noticed I was cold when Tom was scuba diving in the Arctic Ocean. I thought maybe they made the theater freezing so we would feel sympathy for Tom as he was getting so cold; but it stayed freezing even when he changed his location to a warmer, sunnier climate; so maybe the low temperatures were not intentional. Who knows?
Tom is really into authenticity. Do you think he really swam wearing only shorts in the icy waters under the polar ice cap? That would be like him. Do you think he really went down to 500 feet below the surface and then swam up naked? hopefully it wasn’t that authentic. Shiver.
They didn’t emphasize, in the pre-movie publicity, how cold the water was. There were photographs of him wearing shorts deep under the water. I assumed that was so we would have a chance to view the work he did on his arms and legs with the bodybuilding. He did a good job with that. He was looking a little tubby after the shutdown. I guess he got depressed and ate a lot; like a lot of other people. However, he worked it off. I wonder if he used Ozempic? Or a similar drug? Probably not. He’s really into health and authenticity. He probably lost the weight the old-fashioned way.
But, as I was watching Tom, freezing in the Arctic Ocean, and freezing myself in the theater, I started wondering whether the stunts with him hanging off of an airplane, which we saw in the pre movie publicity, were actually a red herring. I’m not sure if they’ve ever done that. Do they create stunts for an actor to do to intrigue the audience, without those stunts actually being in the movie? I was really becoming persuaded that that was the case, but eventually we did get the stunt where he’s hanging off the airplane, so it wasn’t a red herring.
I was very happy to see that they corrected one obvious error in the previous movie. In the previous movie, they said they would have to destroy the source code to destroy the entity. As a former programmer, I thought that was nonsense. You need the source code to modify a program. Very few programs run by real time interpretation of source code. That would just not be very effective for such a powerful AI device as we are led to believe that entity is. In this movie, they say they have to modify the source code to create a modified entity. That is technically correct.
I was disappointed after the last movie that the McGuffin — a cruciform key – looked really fake. It certainly didn’t look like a piece of computer equipment. However, they did explain here that the key was supposed to open a lock to a vault that contain the source code, which made more sense – though it really still didn’t look like a real key. It looked like a children’s toy. Tom, with all his attention to authenticity, chose a really fake looking McGuffin.
I noted before and complain again about the fact that there are allowed to be men with gray hair in Tom’s movies, but no women with gray hair. He did at least bring in Angela Bassett as the president. She is actually in her 60s, according to the Internet, so we actually got an older woman, which is good. But she didn’t let us see any gray hair. She was wearing a wig or something.
I noticed, in the pre-movie publicity, that they had a party where Haley Atwell showed up and was pawing Tom. Interestingly, they had Rebecca Ferguson do that in at least one of those parties before a prior Mission Impossible. Hayley Atwell has made very clear that she’s not involved with Tom. Indeed, I believe she became engaged during the last movie — to somebody else. Moreover, she resented the fact that so many people were inferring that she was dating Tom because she was his costar in this movie. She pointed out, which is really true, that this is really harassing to imply that a woman is having sex with her boss. In the previous movie, there was no hint that her character was going to be involved romantically or sexually with Tom‘s character, or if there was, I missed it. Here, though, there is some of that.
I guess having Haley be physically flirtatious and touching Tom in a sensual way is one of the things they do for pre-film publicity. I don’t think he was ever involved with Rebecca Ferguson either.
In this movie they have Tom surrounded by women. There’s Haley Atwell; there’s the Asian martial arts expert; Angela Bassett; and an Inuit woman. After the movie, I like to watch the credits. I do this to see how many women are in the movie behind the scenes. I am gradually seeing an increase in the number of women; but it’s still vastly majority men.
Interestingly, they’re still having the Asian lady, Pom Klementieff, speak French, and then everybody just understands her; with no explanation of why they may understand French. I remember seeing a comment in the publicity for the last movie, that they chose to have that actress perform in French, which is her native language, because she acted better in that language. They did subtitle her French language commentary; however, when the Inuit woman spoke, they did not subtitle her. That seems odd, because a lot more people know French than know Inuit.
They had a fair amount of flashbacks to old Mission Impossible movies. I thought that was so cool. There were images of Tom as a very young actor. His face has changed a lot. They also had at least one character come back from a previous movie who we haven’t seen in forever. He’s gone from being a dorky young man to being quite a graceful, attractive, older scientist, who is nevertheless still a nerd.
That’s something I’ve noticed about Tom also – and a lot of older performers. As they gain more experience, they gain more skill and subtlety in their performances. I tend to watch more singers than I watch movies. I noticed, for instance that both Neil Diamond and Dolly Parton have much improved stage presence over their younger selves. Whereas, the younger Tom would just sort of shout or bark lines and be intense all the time, the older Tom is more reflective. His voice is more subtle and nuanced. His voice has, as with so many men, gotten deeper with age. He’s really able to use it to growl and rumble, in a quiet, but dramatic, way.
In the last movie, he really had a lot of crepey skin on his neck and big bags under his eyes. I don’t know what happened to that. His neck looks smoother. He has some wrinkles around his eyes, but not bags. He always swore he would never have plastic surgery. Still, I wonder if he has. It’s also possible that they can do amazing things with make up
One of my complaints about Mission impossible VII was that Tom looked so depressed. One of the things that I really like about Tom is that he is always, or at least most of the time, having a lot of fun when he acts. There can be suspense. I can be afraid for his safety. I can see stress on his face during those high drama action scenes. Yet, I know he’s having fun. He’s told us so. But I think it comes through. You can tell that he’s just having the time of his life, even though his character is really in serious danger and pain. I feel that Tom’s movies are fun to watch because he’s having fun.
I especially noticed that in The Mummy. That is a horror movie. It should be terrifying; and there were scary scenes when the mummy lady was trying to kill him; but I never felt so deeply terrified as I usually do in horror movies. It was fun to watch, because I knew that, deep down, despite the suspense, Tom was having fun.
That’s part of what was so disappointing about Mission Impossible VII. It just felt really depressing, because Tom seemed was depressed. Here, he has a grim determination– and you can see that there’s a certain amount of pessimism there; but there’s not that deep depression. I think the deep depression may have come from how much he disliked the shutdown.
That shows how we’re different, he and I. I loved the shutdown. I loved the downsizing of my life and discovering zoom and not dining in restaurants, so I lost 10 pounds. Tom gained weight during the shutdown. I lost weight. It’s back on, now. That’s upsetting. Tom has gotten his super trim again.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that he looks good, when you look at his hands, you can see the age in them. That’s something I think it’s very hard to hide is the age of hands.
They have said this is the last mission impossible movie. Maybe so, but there’s sort of a hint that this might not in fact be the end.
When I came back from my second restroom break, I decided not to go back into the back corner of the theater. The theater was fairly empty. I had pretty much my choice of seats. I ended up going to the middle of the theater. I figured since Tom had made a big point of the fact that he made this movie for IMAX, I really should try to experience the IMAX fully, which I wasn’t doing so much when I was up in the back corner and behind the last speaker. So, yes, it did make a difference to sit in the theater center, because the sound was better there. Also, of course, the picture in front was bigger; tho somehow it didn’t seem as big as the first time I saw IMAX long ago. They’ve made all these theaters a lot smaller. The screen just didn’t seem to be that big. Therefore, even though this was an IMAX theater, and even though it was, supposedly, a special fan showing, I don’t think it was exactly what Tom intended.
Naturally, of course, all of the camera work, lighting, scenery, costumes were highly professionally done. The action was tight. It held my attention, for sure. Curiously, sometimes I put my arms in the air because it seemed to make it easier to deal with the stress of the suspense.
Even though he films all over the world, there is something so very quintessentially Hollywood about Tom. He spent his whole adult life just totally immersing himself with every aspect of cinema. It was interesting that they chose him to represent the film industry, and the city of Los Angeles, at the Olympics. There’s something about a really tough notch, Hollywood film, that just is peerless. That was definitely in evidence here.
Even though I love fantasizing about Tom, I know that we’re very different people and in all likelihood we wouldn’t be at all compatible. I think of him as being a jock and myself as being a nerd. Look at how long this blog is becoming! Yet, when it comes to cinema, he is very much of a nerd, as well. He knows and wants all the very best movie making technology in his films. That comes through.
