Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning - Movie Review

The Movie: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

The Director: Christopher McQuarrie

The Cast: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Angela Bassett, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk

The Story: Ethan Hunt goes on a world tour to save the world one last time.

The Rating: 6 / 10

The Review:

Tom Cruise has been taking us on adventures as Ethan Hunt for almost 30 years now which is a really long time so it's kind of fitting that this movie feels like it also takes a really long time. The run time is just under three hours but unfortunately, it felt like it was a lot longer than that. The action is still there and there's a lot of fun to be had, but every scene feels like it takes twice as long as it needs to and there's so much explanation happening that it was hard to stay engaged with the story.

You know how a joke gets ruined when you have to explain it? Same thing with movies, if you have to spend a lot of time explaining what's happening and why characters are doing what they're doing then the audience begins to check out and the story tends to drag on. This is often the case with movies that have longer than average run times and when I saw that this movie clocks in at just under three hours, I was worried this might be the case here as well. I feel like the writers were too concerned about making sure the audience understood what was happening instead of trusting that we'd all be able to follow along.

I do understand that there were so many plot threads to wrap up, some dating all the way back to the franchise's earliest entries, but unfortunately all of that just adds to the struggles that the story has. That being said, it was still fun to go on one more adventure with this team, especially after so many years of being invested into each of the character's journeys. If you've enjoyed this franchise and you love revisiting these characters then of course, you need to see it through all the way to the end.

What's crazy is, even after nearly three decades of making these movies, Tom Cruise is still doing all of his own stunts and still looks more than capable of being Ethan Hunt, one of the best action movie characters of all time. Yes, that's him hanging off of upside-down airplanes and spending more time under water than James Cameron did during his Titanic expeditions (not sure if that's true) and he looks like he could keep doing this stuff for another thirty-some-odd years if he wanted to. At this point, that's half the fun of this franchise is seeing what Tom is going to do next as the ultimate super spy so the movie does have that going for it.

I'm typing this review about a year after the movie came out so I know I'm not remembering some stuff, but I'm disappointed knowing that Pom Klementieff, Haley Atwell, and Angela Bassett are all in this movie and I can barely remember anything that their characters did. Pom was super badass in Dead Reckoning Part One so I was expecting a lot more from her this time around but that was never paid off like I had hoped. Can we get a movie with just these three women put front and center? Whatever that looks like, I'd be all for it.

While I wish this franchise could go on forever, I believe it is time for Mr. Cruise and company to turn in their exploding message device things and call it a day. I also wouldn't want to see them try to hand off the franchise to some new cast of characters so, even though the movie is somewhat of a disappointment, I'm satisfied with the overall body of Impossible Missions that have been given to us over so many years.

Thank you to Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and everyone else who was involved with this movie and all the other installments as well. It's been one heck of a ride.