by G. E. Uke, Reporter,
Tom Cruise is getting on in years.
This isn’t a bad thing, considering we all do it eventually. But at the ripe old age of sixty two, there are limits to the daredevil shenanigans he and his stunt doubles are capable of. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning differs from its predecessors in one important respect: it really tries to drive home that this is the last one. There are constant flashbacks to clips of previous movies, and an effort is made to give Ethan Hunt a sense of heritage for his big send-off.
Let’s get the acting out of the way: Tom Cruise was his usual self, and his acting was typical for this character. He didn’t do anything particularly stirring, because Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is more about the stuff that happens TO him than his strength as a character. Grace (Hayley Atwell) is stupid awesome, and it saddens me that we don’t get to see more of her in the role of a thief and pickpocket turned IMF agent. She had some of the best moments in the film. The silent French killer Paris (Pom Klementieff) didn’t have many lines, but she did have a decent amount of personality. Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) was pretty standard in his recurring role as the geek of the IMF, but Lucker Stickell (Ving Rhames) excelled in his role as a dying computer genius. My last shoutout goes to Gabriel (Esai Morales), who did as much with the script he was given as he could…but that isn’t a lot. Still, his evil faces were cool. He has a very evil face.
There are a number of complications with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, but they can all be summarized using three words: suspension of disbelief.
Let’s start with the premise: a piece of malicious military software sent to attack a Russian sub has somehow gained genuine sentience. This A.I., called The Entity, is hacking all the computer systems on the planet. In the previous movie it was stated that the Entity didn’t DO anything after it hacked these networks, but the major world powers are obsessed with obtaining its source code to control it. The Entity has a champion, Gabriel, who is an evil guy. There’s no mention of where he comes from, but he’s devoutly obsessed with the idea of killing anyone who could impede The Entity’s freedom. His whole gimmick, if you can call it that, is that The Entity has calculated the outcome of everything in the world and advises him, so he can do no wrong. You don’t know what his endgame is, but all through the previous movie you get the impression that the Entity is trying to keep its autonomy and the moral of the next movie will be “Robot Freedom” versus “Greed of Man.”
Nope.
In Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning the plot does a 180-turn. The Entity is evil, and taking over all the nuclear arsenals in the world. Gabriel has been “cast aside”, so now he’s just a smug jerk who wants to rule the world. Nobody trusts each other, misinformation is rampant, etc. Tom Cruise needs to use a MacGuffin to kill The Entity, because it’s going to condense itself into an underground computer network when it blows up the world and…it didn’t make much sense. Watching this film I was constantly bombarded by the thought “That’s not how that works.”
But my biggest gripe, if I’m honest, was this didn’t really feel like a Mission Impossible movie. The stakes were high and the action was gut wrenching, but it lacked the cleverness and charm this series is known for. There were no sneaky ploys with last second reveals, no awesome gadgets or teamwork, and no sexiness. That went out the window with Ilsa Faust. It was just a desperate series of increasingly tense disasters and unbelievable stunts. Not “hard to do”, but legitimately impossible. Outside of my media work, I’m also a diver and I used to sell dive equipment for a living. That being said, if you jump into the arctic sea without any sort of wetsuit, you are dead. If you take off your pressurized wetsuit when you are over 500 feet underwater, you are also dead. If you get deprived of oxygen for more than a few minutes, you suffer aphasia and eventually die. Ethan Hunt does an absurd number of things in this movie that have “dead” written all over them, and there is SO much suspension of disbelief it impairs its enjoyability. The danger scenes are NERVE WRACKING. If you’ve ever had a fear of drowning, freezing, heights, whatever, this movie has something to trigger you.
Rating: 
ComicsOnline gives Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – 3 out of 5 final missions we chose to accept.
Please take a moment to FOLLOW & SUBSCRIBE to our updated ComicsOnline social channels.
We appreciate your support!
INSTAGRAM – COMICSONLINE
THREADS – COMICSONLINE
BLUESKY – COMICSONLINE
YOUTUBE – COMICSONLINE
FACEBOOK – COMICSONLINE
Grab your favorite IMF team members and join ComicsOnline for more reviews, more exclusive interviews, and everything geek pop culture!
