Cruise’s latest mission: to kill TV technology that ruins films

TOM CRUISE has said a function in high definition televisions designed to stop fast-moving action appear blurred is ruining the experience of watching films at home.

The Mission Impossible star, 56, said a setting known as “motion smoothing” or “motion interpolation”, which adds artificial frames, can appear to speed up scenes to the naked eye.

The feature is typically automatically turned on most 4K LED/LCD televisions and improves the viewing experience for sports fans watching the latest Premier League football.

But for blockbuster films, the effect can make them appear brighter and sharper than the filmmaker intended – giving them a hyper-realistic effect.

One example highlighted by viewers was the opening scene from the James Bond film Skyfall, where high definition television sets add extra frames during the opening chase scene.

Cruise said it could make films “look like they were shot on high-speed video rather than film”.

In an impassioned video posted on Twitter, Cruise, appearing with Christopher Mcquarrie, the Mission Impossible director, said: “Most HD TVS come with this feature already on, by default, and turning it off requires navigating a set of menus with interpolation often referred to by another brand name.”

Mcquarrie added: “If you own a modern high-definition television there’s a good chance you’re not watching movies the way film-makers intended, and the ability for you to do so is not simple for you to access.”

Reed Morano, the Frozen River director, started a petition calling for the function to be turned off. “It takes the cinematic look out of any image and makes it look like soap opera shot on a cheap video camera,” she said.

Most major HD and 4K television brands have motion smoothing built in, often turned on by default.

Cruise – who is currently filming Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel to the 1986 original – said filmmakers had been working with manufacturers to change how the setting was activated.

‘It takes the cinematic look out of any image and makes it look like soap opera shot on a cheap video camera’