Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – Review by T. J. Callahan
Mission: Impossible has gotten biblical for its Final Reckoning. Ethan Hunt is proclaimed the Chosen One. Only he can save the world from nuclear Armageddon as the AI infiltrator called The Entity swallows up not just cyberspace, but all of the world’s weapons arsenals. Will Hunt live or die? Has he been inscribed in the Book of Life? Will he part the Red Sea?
Tom Cruise is definitely in control in this 8th installment of the action series and possibly his last. Tom has been defying odds for over 30 years as IMF field agent Ethan Hunt and as Cruise gets longer in the tooth so do the movies. Clocking in at just under 3 hours, Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning picks up where Dead Reckoning left off with the team in hot pursuit of the assassin Gabriel to stop him from gaining control of The Entity.
Writer/Director Christopher McQuarrie puts our hero through some of the most far-fetched situations we’ve ever seen on the big screen. Cruise, famous for doing his own stunts, falls from high flying airplanes and swims through the deepest depths of the ocean. But the scenes are way too long giving us time to question the plausibility of it all. That being said, when has Ethan Hunt ever followed the rules?
The Final Reckoning starts out with excited anticipation, drowns us with a second act lull and then makes us wide-eyed with awe as we witness aerial acts like we’ve never seen before on film. McQuarrie brings Hunt, and the now 63 years old Cruise, full circle with flashbacks from the previous 7 films and homages to the character’s beginning with the IMF. Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames reprise their roles as Benji and Luther. Hayley Atwell’s Grace is still on the team and Esai Morales as Gabriel is tops on the hit list. Angela Bassett remains the stoic commander in chief.
If this Mission: Impossible is really Cruises Final Reckoning it’s a shame he didn’t get a stronger, more concise script, but the moneymaker is the stunts, the humor and the nostalgia and those are delivered. At the screening I attended, a man to the right of me was on the edge of his seat like a 12 year boy, a man to the left of me was snoring.
This pretty much sums up the franchise that all stemmed from a 1960’s television show. The fuse isn’t lit before the iconic theme song begins, but you’ll still feel the adrenaline. My husband Ricky gives The PG 13 Final Reckoning 1 ¾ 👀s open. It reaches a 6.5 on the TeejFlixometer.
