Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning Review
Overly long and a little messy, this final Mission Impossible is saved by the wild stunts and Tom Cruise’s irrepressible charm.
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) must track down the Sevastopol submarine to get the source code to destroy the villainous AI called the Entity, before the world’s nuclear missiles are all fired indiscriminately.
Mission Impossible is always a pretty confusing outing, but The Final Reckoning may just be the most inaccessible yet. Laden with nearly a full hour of exposition up front (not counting the 2 hr plus lead in film Dead Reckoning, which this one continues the story of), to say that this movie has pacing issues is a gross understatement.
It also has undoubtedly the dullest villain of the entire series. There is no pizazz or interest in Gabriel, and Esai Morales plays him vastly OTT. Couple that with the Entity, a vague rehash of other, better done AI villains in an age where this type of spectre feels old hat, and you have a ‘villain’ that cannot stack up to say, Sean Harris’ Solomon Lane, or Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Owen Davian. It makes for a pretty lacklustre affair.
Then there are the side characters, who here feel too numerous and undercooked to truly deliver anything compelling - and none of whom stack up to some of the series' prior elements. Those who have been here across more than just one outing feel strong, but the newcomers struggle to find their feet. Couple this with a swathe of plot points that appear and disappear with no explanation (why is Ving Rhames in a hospital bed?), and you have a film that feels like a bit of a misfire.
Oh, and let’s not forget the cinematography, which is so close up and consistently rotating as to give you a bit of nausea.
The saving grace is what has always saved this franchise - Tom Cruise. He once again brings a vitality and life to Ethan Hunt that really cannot be equaled. When he breaks into a full sprint to catch a plane, you believe he can do so; when he feels defeated, or successful, you do too.
And his stunt work is unrivalled. The stunt team here set up a few set pieces that vastly eclipse what was done in Dead Reckoning, and more importantly do so in a way that makes them feel EXTREMELY real. The sub sequence, and the plane sequence, have the ring of authenticity that so much stunt work in Hollywood these days doesn’t, and frankly it takes what could have been a complete failure of a film, and elevates it into a tense, heart pounding, emotional affair that will have you gripping the edge of your seat. That’s the sort of thing a great stunt team and a good leading man can do, and here it shows in spades.
