FILM REVIEW: "MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING" IS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
Eight-thousand feet above the ground, a hundred and forty miles per hour, Tom Cruise whistles past on the wing of a bi-plane. He's hardly caught his breath, having been dredged beneath the Berring Sea, and tumbling from the troposphere. Cheating death, defying gravity - and that’s just the behind the scenes.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is the eighth entry in the long-running action franchise. As the insidious AI 'Entity' seizes its grip on the world's nuclear arsenals, Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team race against the clock to stop all-out global decimation.
The Final Reckoning is a truly gargantuan film: the scale, scope, and stakes, a sum of the franchises twenty-year timeline. In an age of superheros and CGI, Mission: Impossible is the last true blockbuster. With its heart on its sleeve, and its arms wrapped around the wings of a biplane, the franchises commitment to practical effects and death-defying feats bring a white-knuckle authenticity that can't be found anywhere else on film. Love him or hate him, no one makes films like Tom Cruise.
The Final Reckoning is the fourth film from franchise favourite Christopher McQuarrie, which finds the writer/director back at his best. The film races through its runtime at breakneck speed. Though it takes a moment to find the right momentum, once it starts moving, it never stops.
Franchise regulars Simon Pegg, Hailey Atwell, and Pom Klementiff return for this swan song, but its Ving Rhames' longtime Luther who receives an imperative arc. Meanwhile, newcomers Nic Offerman (Parks & Rec), Katy O'Brien (Love Lies Bleeding) and Tramell Tillman (Severance) paint the stacked supporting cast in gleeful colours
More espionage than outright action, The Final Reckoning is rife with gunfights, paranoia, and techno-babble - but it's at its best as Cruise finds himself in precarious positions. A mid-film underwater sequence is not only tongue bitingly intense, but a spectacle previously unseen in cinema.
From scaling the Burj Khalifa to base jumping from a mountaintop, Tom Cruise has proven time and time again that he would die for our entertainment. It is this spirit of commitment that elevates the Mission: Impossible franchise above its competition. At 62 years of age, Tom Cruise is more willing than ever to put himself through insane feats of courage and strength, which peer out from behind the silver screen, and invite audiences to marvel at the insane craftsmanship behind these films.
It feels fitting that a franchise revered for its practical effects, takes aim at an AI antagonist: a cancerous, intangible creation that’s poisoning all industries as we speak. Though it means the films grassroots swerve from mano e' mano fistfights to nineties tech Macguffin's, which muddles the plot but can't stop the fun.
Best seen big and heard loud, The Final Reckoning is designed for the cinema. In a franchise full of highs, it's not the finest entry yet, but by no means a low. The Final Reckoning will keep you on the edge of your seat. It's a fitting farewell to old faces, and a welcome entry for some new. It's heartfelt, well intentioned, and above all - a damn good time at the cinema.
3.5 / 5
