I’ve been a fan of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ series since the third film. There’s an old school vibe to the whole franchise where the villains were one-dimensional, the geopolitics were never that complicated, and it was just a battle between Ethan Hunt’s Impossible Mission Force agents representing the force of good and whoever was the big bad in that installment. What was at the forefront were the use incredible stunts and fight choreography. It takes on the genre of the caper film, detailing a verifiable complicated plan to stop the villains from succeeding. It truly captures the idea of “impossible” but it’s done with such flair and shot and edited with such mastery that each film has always been a benchmark for Hollywood blockbuster excellence. Not to mention Tom Cruise’s penchant for doing all his death-defying stunts himself, without the aid of CGI or green screen.
While ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ did not do too well on the box office due to its schedule (it opened a week before the ‘Oppenheimer’ and ‘Barbie’ release which totally eclipsed the film and took away its theaters), I very much enjoyed the film. The new enemy is a state-of-the-art AI called The Entity who can hack into any system and corrupt it and its human counterpart, Gabriel (Esai Morales). That film introduced us to new characters – Grace (Hayley Atwell), an expert thief and pickpocket; Paris (Pom Klementieff), an assassin who was working with Gabriel but was betrayed by him and is now aligned with Ethan – and has Ethan on the run and in hiding from his own government as he has taken it upon himself to destroy The Entity as he believes that no power in the world should be able to control it.
‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ takes place two months after the events of the previous film and spends the next half hour catching us up. In fact, there’s a whole lot of exposition in this film, considering that this is the final installment of the franchise (or so they say), you’d think we’d get right into the action. But ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning’ isn’t just a big finale, it’s also a send off. The script then tries to tie up this film with every other film in the franchise, creating links of the rabbit’s foot of the third film to the Entity and having other characters from previous movies referenced or even show up.
And so the 170-minute running time of the film is not just action sequence after action sequence. Even as he is running from his government and trying to avoid any of the chaos happening globally caused by The Entity corrupting the internet and fostering a world where we no longer trust anything and anyone, Ethan must appeal to various people – high ranking American military personnel – who can get him closer and closer to a sunken submarine, which holds the key to stopping The Entity.
These scenes are a lot of tense moments of Ethan trying to convince people to go against their chain of command to take lead from a rogue operative. These scenes are shot with intense drama but we all know how it is going to turn out.
In fact, unlike ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ and other films in the franchise, there’s a rushed feel to the whole film. It’s an unbalanced narrative with a lot of exposition punctuated by a high pressure, well-executed fight scene. Each time the film does try to do some character work, especially when it involves Ethan and Luther (Ving Rhames) it leans towards the sentimental that feels heavy-handed. As Ethan faces the consequences of all his choices throughout the whole franchise, this movie will bring up another character who will tell him that he did good. There’s an overall feeling that there or no real consequences in the franchise. Characters can die – like Keri Russel’s Lyndsey Farris in ‘Mission: Impossible III’ and Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust from the last three installments – but Ethan’s morality, despite all his skill and resources, is never compromised.
It’s funny because it’s this old school appeal of absolute good and evil that I remarked at the start of this review but in this movie, it builds a tone that makes the film feel less serious than the others. Tonally, it feels off.
At least, the film tackles and shows us the dangers of unmitigated AI but as terrifying as The Entity is in ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ it is barely present in this movie. Gabriel is the main antagonist here, and Morales’ approach feels more suited for James Bond than Mission Impossible.
But while the tone isn’t synched, the film delivers its promise of incredible stunts and action sequences that are the trademark of the franchise and Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie. There’s an underwater sequence involving the sunken submarine and a fight between two biplanes, with Cruise jumping unto one and doing acrobatic fight scenes high up in the air. As always, these are the scenes we are all waiting for and as they are shot without CGI, all practical stunts, the effect on the big screen is awe-inspiring and thrilling.
As a fan of the franchise, this wasn’t exactly the film I had wanted the franchise to end on. The narrative is messy and loaded with exposition that kills its pacing and dripping with sentimentality. It underutilizes Hayley Atwell, who is introduced in a big way in the previous film but is minimally used except for two scenes. Luckily, the film’s action sequences, and impressive stunts still make it fun to watch but it’s 50-50. It’s not the big finale the series deserves.
My Rating:
Witness the ultimate finale! Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now showing. Check showtimes and buy your tickets here.
