Tom Cruise brings Mission: Impossible to an emotional, respectful “Final Reckoning” that succeeds despite a very rocky start.
To me, there are no bad Mission: Impossible movies.
As with anything, there are degrees of goodness. In recent rewatch of the series, I maintain that Rogue Nation and Fallout remain unparalleled in the series. They’re gorgeously filmed travelogues, intense political dramas, and breathtaking actions films all rolled into one. Yes, the original Mission: Impossible is probably the most artistic film with then-director Brian DePalma borrowing heavily from the Hitchcock book of suspense filmmaking. Yet, the filmmaking tools at Christoper McQuarrie’s disposal simply provide too much of a great palate to fashion high-tech, expansive, and seemingly endlessly imaginative action cinema. On the other side, Mission: Impossible 2, in my book, wasn’t a terrible film. It’s a film with a lot of mistakes and questionable choices, but it still entertains. Entertains in spite of endless slo-mo courtesy of John Woo.
Star Tom Cruise and writer/director McQuarrie reteam for the fourth time in Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, wrapping the massively complex (perhaps overly so) story initiated in the last adrenaline-filled outing, Dead Reckoning. This time, the narrative looks back across the series and pulls in fan-service events and characters to presumably close the series. That’s not the first time they’ve done this: Cruise’s Ethan Hunt frequently revisited his one-time wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) before finally saying goodbye to her in Fallout. But here, Reckoning leverages a similar emotional pull to focus on a theme that Cruise has explored for several films: Ethan Hunt would rather put millions of lives at risk to save the handful of lives close to him. It’s a nice touch that anchors the series in an earned sense of emotion.
But let’s not kid ourselves. We come to Mission: Impossible for the action stunts, and in a way, Reckoning doesn’t disappoint.
Around the 1 hour mark, the film kicks into an intensive high gear. It’s not truly a spoiler to say that Cruise’s Hunt must visit the Sevastopol, the submarine sunk early in Dead Reckoning. The sub contains the source code for the Entity, an advanced AI that has now taken over the world as Hunt failed to stop it in the previous film. The extended, near 45-minute sequence is beautifully directed — some of McQuarrie’s best work in his contributions to the series. It’s intense, breathtaking, nerve-wracking, and, for someone deeply afraid of the vastness of the ocean, nearly impossible to withstand. It’s hands-down the best sequence in the film and well worth seeing on the big screen.
With an engaging if slightly repetitive finale, Final Reckoning brings the series home in stable fashion. If only the first third of the film weren’t so deeply flat-footed. Historically, Mission: Impossible films always offer early surprises in smallish action sequences, but this time, it’s scene after scene of bloated exposition. Admittedly, it’s a lot of story to establish, but it needed edits, both cinematically and in the script, to sharpen the tone. And it features one fight sequence that ends in what has to be one of the worst, most cringe-inducing moments in the entire series.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to muscle through these initial unfortunate moments. You’ll be rewarded with multiple action sequences that, in the instance of the Sevastopol, stand with the best the series has to offer. You leave the film in marvel at how far Tom Cruise goes to entertain, which he absolutely does. You’re in his hands the entire time, and you’re in very good hands indeed.
This review will self-destruct in five seconds.
Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning opens today in theaters nationwide.
