Tom Cruise Is ‘Cocky,’ ‘Emo,’ and He ‘Looks Like a Maniac’ in Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol opens in IMAX today, and a few things are clear: It’s worth seeing in the larger format, the scene set on the outside of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa building is thrilling, and Brad Bird seems to have made the leap from animation to live action pretty ably. But what of Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt? How is he?

“The character begins and ends with the star’s charisma.” [AV Club]

“Ethan Hunt … is exactly the kind of charismatic, overamped control freak we all believe (rightly or wrongly) that Cruise is too.” [Salon]

“Ethan Hunt has gone emo.” [Movieline]

“He still radiates intensity bordering on mania, but without the familiar ‘what, me worry?’ air of invincibility.” [NYT]

“Ethan can do it all, and by extension so can Cruise, a case of self flattery-by-proxy that as both the series and its lead actor ages, has begun to take on the whiff of compensatory overkill.” [WP]

” … he tones down his trademark cocky preening.” [Miami Herald]

“The runty cockiness, the intense asexuality, the general relentlessness, the sprinting — lord, the sprinting … all his talent has become secondary to his masochistic vanity.” [Boston Globe]

” … doesn’t Cruise look like a flat-out maniac when he runs at top speed, those arms bent at precisely 90 degrees, eyes halfway to Charles Manson land? I mean, seriously crazy?” [Chicago Tribune]

“He’s quite appealing.” [THR]

Related: Movie Review: The Nonsensical, Wonderful Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Tom Cruise Is ‘Cocky,’ ‘Emo,’ and He ‘Looks Like a Maniac’ in Mission: Impossible