3 min to read
Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning
How good is the finale of the Mission Impossible franchise?
Review: When thinking back about the movie, I think back on it as if the movie has 2 halves. The first half is pure exposition and setup for the 2nd half and is full of callbacks and flashbacks to the 1st, 3rd, and 7th movies in the franchise. The flashbacks to the 1st and 3rd movies were wonderful additions, giving people a glimpse to past movies they may not have seen in several years, but the flashbacks to the 7th movie seemed unnecessary, as the movie came out 2 years ago. This movie would have been seen more recently than the other movies, so intentionally showing multiple scenes from the 7th movie had the movie going a little too far with the flashbacks. The first half of the film also may feel choppy at times, having the pacing and the editing of the movie being very sporadic and all over the place at times. I didn’t find it too distracting, but those I watched it with found it much more irritating than me.
Once the movie gets to the 2nd half everything changes, being nearly nonstop action for nearly an hour plus. The 2nd half of the movie is based solely around 2 main action sequences, both of which are quite lengthy, both absolutely amazing. They fully immerse you in the story/action and you are on the edge of your seat the entire time just wanting to see more. The first of the major sequences was the submarine sequence. Underwater scenes have become more common in movies, but this may go down as one of the most incredible underwater sequences in a movie ever (I would describe more but don’t want to give away and spoil this whole sequence). The second major sequence is with the two biplanes. This sequence in particular is so much longer than I expected it to be, and the fact Tom Cruise literally did everything in this sequence while literally holding on to the planes still baffles me. This sequence may go down as one of the most ambitious and well shot action sequences ever. I was truly blown away by how good it was.
Between this movie and the last movie I still feel like the AI (The Entity) could have been explained more coherently and could have been used more effectively, but I know they were trying to keep the plot a little simple so the action set pieces could soar and exceed expectation. I was also hoping Gabriel would be more interesting in this movie too when compared to Dead Reckoning, but I think he’ll go down as one of the worst written villains in a Mission Impossible movie. I still don’t know who he is and what his real motivations are. Also, how did he keep getting those bombs?
Overall, what an incredible finale to the Mission Impossible franchise. Tom Cruise has been working with this franchise for 30 years, and throughout the film you can see and feel his love and dedication to this franchise. There have been so many movies recently where I can really only focus on the flaws I see in the movie instead of what I really enjoyed, but this movie definitely was the opposite. As I’ve stated, I do have some issues with this movie (I have more, but I don’t want to go into spoilers), but this is one of those movies where the great parts of the movie are so good I can forgive and disregard some of its flaws. I got so engaged in this movie that I will always remember this movie for how it gave 110% effort in the 2nd half of the movie.
Rating: 4.5/5
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