MOVIE REVIEW: FTN reviews Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning (PG-13)
Running time: 2h 49m
Starring: Tom Cruise, Haley Atwell, Ving Rhames

Set a mere two months after the events of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, tensions between the nuclear powers of the world are rising due to digital manipulations by the artificial intelligence known as ‘The Entity’ which is working to get control of the world’s nuclear arsenal.

IMF (Impossible Mission Force) agent Ethan Hunt, in possession of a key that may literally be the key to controlling the Entity, is a fugitive refusing orders to bring it to the US government, believing that it is too dangerous a power for anyone to have. Instead, the mission that he chooses to accept this time comes from himself – find the final piece of the Entity’s source code that he needs to destroy the Entity, before it manages to take control of the world’s nuclear arsenal and wipes out the human race. Further complicating matters is the return of Gabriel (Eisa Morales), no longer a disciple of the Entity after his failure to obtain the key, he is now intent on getting the key from Ethan so that he can take control of the Entity for his own purposes.

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WATCH: New trailer for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning really packs a punch

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After the previous movie in the franchise, Dead Reckoning, suffered increased costs due to the pandemic, it under-performed at the struggling box office, leading Paramount to change the title of the newest movie from Dead Reckoning Part 2 to Final Reckoning, suggesting the possibility that this, the eighth in the franchise, could very well be the final entry if this one also underperforms.

The stakes for the franchise have never been higher, both in reality and within the story. While there are several issues with the movie, that raised level of threat is front and centre the biggest hurdle that audiences are going to struggle with.

The franchise has always been about the mission to do the impossible to save the world from a threat – an engineered bioweapon in MI:2, the ‘Rabbit’s Foot’ in MI:3, a nuclear terrorist in Ghost Protocol, and again in Fallout, but with each movie there was always a solid mix of fun and entertainment, despite the threat and the stakes.

The biggest problem with The Final Reckoning is the tone: that threat has been turned up to the max, and while there are fun sequences and little bits of humour thrown into the mix, the threat of the ticking clock is given much more sustained presence throughout the entire near three hour runtime, cutting back to a briefing room in an underground bunker focusing on the President and her aides monitoring the Entity’s progress as it reaches ever close to its goal. The threat is so present as a result, it overpowers all other aspects of the movie, making for a good, but less enjoyable and more exhausting watch.

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WATCH: Tom Cruise introduces ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ trailer as only he can – you NEED to see this

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There are some interesting choices made by writer/director Christopher McQuarry, calling back to many of the previous movies connecting Ethan Hunt directly with the creation of the Entity, making him personally responsible for the situation, but at times these felt very forced and slow the pace of the narrative. A particular sub-plot involving the Briggs (Shea Whigham) character could have easily been left on the cutting room floor to trim 5-10 minutes off the lengthy runtime.

While not as haphazard as with other movies, there is an air of ‘studio notes’ potentially being  a cause of the pacing issues. Whereas McQuarrie usually rewards the audience for paying attention, here there is a sense of trying to make the movie work more for audiences that haven’t seen or don’t remember events from the previous movies.

Overall, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is a worthy closure to the franchise – it has all the elements, good writing, great visuals and action (I fully recommend seeing it in IMAX, it looks fantastic in the format), but it fails to reach the heights of Fallout or Dead Reckoning, ultimately making for a disappointing potential finale.

3 out of 5 nerds

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