Mission Impossible:
The Final Reckoning
review by Bobby Blakey
TV series making the transition to the big screen has been all the rage for years, but often they fall flat. When Tom Cruise teamed up with Brian De Palma to bring Mission Impossible to the big screen in 1996 no one could have imagined that it would still be going strong today. With the 5th film, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation director Chrisopher McQuarrie took over the franchise and has been leading the charge alongside Cruise ever since.
Now the long anticipated seemingly final film in the series Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is here. The film brings back old and new cast alongside franchise frontrunner Cruise including Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Angela Bassett, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Frederick Schmidt.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning follows Ethan Hunt and the IMF team who continue their search for the terrifying AI known as the Entity - which has infiltrated intelligence networks all over the globe - with the world's governments and a mysterious ghost from Ethan's past on their trail. Joined by new allies and armed with the means to shut the Entity down for good, Hunt is in a race against time to prevent the world as we know it from changing forever.
While I wasn’t originally a big fan of the first film it has grown on me over the years, and this franchise has become one of my favorites. Each film is better than the next constantly stepping up its game in the action department. At the same time the series got way over the top as it went along getting full on into classic James Bond territory in these last two films. That isn’t a bad thing mind you, just having to let more and more of some of the over the top stuff just exist and enjoy the chaotic ride we all know we are embarking on.
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This latest and possible final chapter is yet another great entry into the unexpectedly awesome franchise. I will say that there is something a little off in the visuals for me as it doesn’t really feel like some of the previous film at times. Nothing that ruins the film mind you, just different. I also think having a direct continuation lends it to a different overall tone of the characters as opposed to the new mission and being thrust back together for whatever nonsense they have to take on.
Cruise and the team have done a great job creating a world of espionage through all these films that built varying close knit family groups on these missions with characters weaving in and out of the franchise. This film does a truly great job of bringing it all together complete with numerous callbacks to the other missions and how it’s all connected. There are even more return surprises that felt like a redemption arc we didn’t even know we needed for a character and how these missions affect those not involved as well.
The film takes full advantage of its almost three hour run time to get in as much story, twists, drama and action as possible. I was surprised that there was as much ongoing action as they instead allowed the tension and story to build, but the action that is here is as top notch as ever. Most of them are long sequences too as opposed to a bunch of small ones and the tend to bounce between multiple action moments happening simultaneously which give it a feeling of chaos in the best edge of your seat way. There are some of the story elements that I think either got a little lost or washed over amid it all but nothing that took it down.
In the end, once again Cruise and the team deliver the spy action spectacle fans have come to love in a story that not only entertains but does a great job of wrapping things up in the franchise without putting a nail in the coffin either. As much as I love this series and would love to see more, I do in fact hope this is the final outing as it feels like they are going with because it is a satisfying ending to this nearly thirty-year journey.
Join the latest mission if you choose to accept it and check out Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning in theaters now from Paramount.