Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
When a malevolent AI known as The Entity threatens to destroy all of humanity, Ethan and his IMF team must race against time in order to prevent a nuclear war.
Yes, while other movie studios and giant tech companies are all trying to embrace AI technology, Mission: Impossible is here to remind us of how dangerous AI can be. And, given all of the convincing AI slop that I've seen on social media lately, I personally fall on the side of believing that AI is bad. Sure, it can make some funny or cool-looking videos, but it can also spread misinformation at an alarmingly quick rate. Which is basically what The Final Reckoning is all about.
The Entity uses misinformation to prey on people's fear and paranoia. This, in turn, leads to the creation of a doomsday cult, and allows The Entity to seize control of global nuclear systems much easier. Because government officials are just as susceptible to falling for misinformation as anyone else is. The only difference is, when their biases and prejudices are exploited, that can lead to incredibly large consequences. And that's what Ethan Hunt has to deal with here.
As governments begin vying for a sense of control, Hunt must defy his orders in order to find a way to contain - or destroy - The Entity. Which does sound like it would make for an engaging story; unfortunately, I thought The Final Reckoning was simply okay.
I can't deny that the film is a technically well-made one; everything from the acting, to the directing, to the outstanding action sequences are all incredibly impressive. But the movie just didn't engage me the same way that some of the older Mission Impossible films did. And I think that's because The Final Reckoning is an overly long and overly serious movie that spends a lot of time reflecting over the history of the franchise with an odd kind of somber reverence. I enjoy this series best when it isn't taking itself too seriously. Sure, the franchise may feel more grounded than something like The Fast and the Furious, but considering some of the insane things that Ethan Hunt has done, I'm sure Dominic Toretto would consider him to be family.
Of course, the Mission: Impossible films have a very different tone compared to The Fast and the Furious, but I personally prefer when the movies aren't afraid to be a bit silly. Because Mission: Impossible is fun! And while it can be grounded in some sense of realism, that shouldn't prevent it from embracing that fun.
So, if we ever do get another Mission: Impossible film in the future, I really hope that the tone of that movie will be more in line with Ghost Protocol or Rogue Nation. And yes, there is going to be another movie. This may be the final reckoning, but it's definitely not the last Mission: Impossible.
Everyone in the IMF group is going to be coming back for a future installment. Well... almost everyone. Some characters don't make it out of here alive. And while I do have mixed feelings about who ended up dying, and how, I will say that the deaths do feel deliberate. This isn't a Marvel movie where we know that a dead character is never truly gone for good; when a character dies in this franchise, their loss has a genuine impact on the story being told. So I respect director Christoper McQuarrie's ability to make a character's death feel purposeful. Because that purpose gave the story some weight.
That being said, I wouldn't mind if McQuarrie handed the baton to a different director in the future. Because, while all of his Mission: Impossible movies are good, he's directed half of the entire film series now. So it may be time to bring some new creative voices onto this franchise.
Though I would love to see everyone else return, of course. Tom Cruise is a madman and I love seeing all of the crazy stunts that he puts himself through. Simon Pegg is always great as the lovable Benji. Hayley Atwell is fun as Grace. Ving Rhames is able to provide a much needed sense of heart with his performance as Luther. And that's not even mentioning how Angela Bassett, Nick Offerman, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff, Tramell Tillman, Esai Morales - and more - all give really good performances as well.
My only problem with the cast is that its actually too large. There are way too many characters in this movie! At one point, a character literally says that he's not useful during an important sequence, and he couldn't be more right. The movie just didn't know what to do with all of the characters in this story.
The film suffers from featuring too many different plot lines as well. With the longest runtime in franchise history, The Final Reckoning definitely feels bloated and overly long. Which is especially true, considering that it has a deadly serious tone, and a baffling desire to show more flashbacks than necessary. Sure, it was cool to see how certain things connected to previous installments in the franchise, but some of these callbacks made the movie feel longer than it actually is.
It's almost as if, following the underwhelming performance of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1, the studio didn’t trust the audience to remember anything that happened in the franchise's history. So, in order to make sure that everyone understood what was happening, they told McQuarrie to flash back to the older movies as often as possible. But the flashbacks, and most of the callbacks for that matter, failed to move the story forward in any meaningful way. So the movie spent a lot of time reflecting on the history of the franchise for no real reason.
I mean, if the series really did want to come to an end, then it should have just concluded with Mission: Impossible - Fallout. That movie offered some real closure to Ethan Hunt's story, but it was ignored in order to see Ethan battle a corrupt AI for some reason. And that story may be more modern and socially relevant, but its nowhere near as compelling as the story that was told in Fallout.
The Final Reckoning bends over backwards trying to connect to every little moment from Ethan's past, but by having him go up against a nameless and faceless entity, the film feels surprisingly impersonal - ironically enough. Because none of these callbacks teaches us anything new about Ethan as a character. All we learn is that he's the best at everything, he's completely incorruptible, and that he absolutely loves his friends. But we already knew all of this! So what was the point of trying to connect everything together??
I don't know, man. But I think Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning could’ve been condensed into one single narrative. That could’ve prevent the story from feeling so unnecessarily bloated. Because, again, these movies aren’t inherently bad; the story just failed to resonate with me. And I really wanted to like this movie, especially considering how well-made it is. The direction is great, the acting is great, the stunts are great; the technical craftsmanship on display here is undeniably great. So, I’m still looking forward to seeing more Mission: Impossible films in the future, because I would love to watch a future installment that does resonate with me.
That being said, if you were a bigger fan of Dead Reckoning than I was, then you’re probably going to enjoy The Final Reckoning just fine. And I totally understand that. They’re both incredibly well-made films. They may not have worked for me personally, but that doesn’t take away from how good they actually are. So, even in spite of my issues with it, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning would still get a mild recommendation from me.