Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Review
Tom Cruise defies gravity again – and then some – for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning…
“I need you to trust me, one last time!” Of course we do, Tom. We will always trust you, even if this truly is the final reckoning. Almost thirty years ago, the first Mission: Impossible was released in cinemas to a crescendo of critical positivity and box office glory, but even then, no one saw the potential for what the series could become. Except for one man. Quite simply, there is nothing like this in cinema, and we should all thank our lucky stars that someone like Tom Cruise exists to push himself to the edge to bring us staggering, breathless, unmatched cinematic gold. For that, he, Christopher McQuarrie and all the incredible casts, filmmakers, stunt teams and more over three decades deserve their unique climax, even if the eighth and probably final film doesn’t quite hit some of the dizzying heights they have scaled in that time.
As you sit down to watch Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, you know that the experience will be unlike anything you have seen before, with all the envelopes of practical, in-camera filmmaking cranked to its limit. Whether it’s mounted IMAX cameras on the sides of helicopters hundreds of miles above the ground, insane car and motorcycle chases across the streets of Paris and Casablanca, or hanging its star off the tallest building in the world, the awe and adrenaline that pumps through your body is unreal. Nobody does it like this, and once again here, it’s pushed even further with another aerial rollercoaster trumping almost everything that has been performed before, whilst an underwater sequence as Hunt searches for the Svestopol is beyond any words we can write here. Experiencing it for yourself on IMAX is mandatory.
What The Final Reckoning lacks, though, is cohesion, at least to the degree that McQuarrie has been able to coalesce in the previous films. Whereas the other Missions feel propelled into action almost immediately, the first hour or so here gets so bogged down with exposition and bloated dialogue that it becomes something of a slog to penetrate, with the narrative flip-flopping between multiple strands from Dead Reckoning and almost running away with itself whilst trying to keep our attention. There are a few moments that penetrate the gabble which threatens to choke the film in a choke hold, but certainly feels as if anything was to be excised from the almost three-hour runtime, this is where the most judicious cuts could have been made.
That said, when it takes off in the second hour, boy, does it fly and notwithstanding those two sensational sequences that propel us towards our explosive conclusion, the film is helped by another stellar ing cast around Cruise that takes it to a whole other level. Angela Bassett gets another juicy role to show off her illustrious talents, surrounded by the likes of Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Janet McTeer, Charles Parnell, and Mark Gatiss. Hannah Waddingham, Katy O’Brien and film-stealer Tramell Tillman add their own heft when Ethan heads out to sea, while IMF’s Pegg, Klementieff, Rhames, Davis and Atwell’s unique dynamism together is as sharp as ever.
As for Cruise, he can perform as Hunt on autopilot if he needs to, but there is an extra emotional weight and depth to him over these two final films that are perhaps his finest turns as the ever-reliable agent. showcasing just why he is still the biggest and best actor on the planet.
The bar for action cinema – and, indeed, the theatrical experience as a whole – has been raised higher than the Burg Kalifa that Cruise climbed back in 2011 and for that, we will always be eternally grateful. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning may not hit those lofty dreamlands we have been graciously invited to over the last decade, but it’s still a ferocious, absorbing, eye-popping action spectacular when it finds its feet, one that is worlds better than anything else trying to keep pace with it. Light that fuse one last time.
★★★ 1/2
In UK cinemas from May 21st / Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Hayley Atwell, Henry Czerny, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Angela Bassett / Dir: Christopher McQuarrie / Paramount Pictures / 12A
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