Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning
Sad. Both E & J’s reviews started with that and I will too as that is the most apt word to use. It’s exceedingly rare that movie franchises are able to sustain the level of quality that Mission Impossible has, and so for it to falter in, presumably, Tom Cruise’s final movie as Ethan Hunt is really tough. It should go without saying that Tom Cruise is likely a terrible person in real life, but it’s undeniable that he brings 200% to every one of his films both emotionally and physically and that brings a certain magic to each installment we get from him. At the same time, he’s aged a lot in the last two film we’ve seen from him, and I think that showed the most in this film, where the action and stunt work was pretty underwhelming. Tom looks tired. And the poor script and bad dialogue didn’t help. There are a couple bright spots in this film, and as Jord says, if you’ve come this far, it deserves watching, but prepare to be disappointed.
-Z
Sadly a disappointing end (?) to an otherwise pretty spectacular franchise. The writing and delivery of lines often felt forced and just “off” here. The pacing of the first hour or so was bizarre, which did improve as the action picked up, but overall I left this movie feeling like it was far too long with many unnecessary plot points. Tom Cruise will certainly keep doing his thing, and I’ll continue to be sucked in by his energy, but this just didn’t quite come together.
-E
Sad when you think about it on a lot of fronts. Sad the series is over, sad that any MI movies that will ultimately come about will feel dirty, and sad that it ended on this. This is right there with MI2 in quality. Some rough looking action and a sub par plot. Despite that, it did have a very good action scene and one that was unbelievably corny. When you watch it yourself, I have a hard time believing that you won't know what I am talking about. Luckily, it doesn’t ruin the series and in a technical sense, it does finish all the story lines, which a series like this rarely does. I do think it needs to be watched if you have seen the rest, and hopefully you don’t see it as sad as I did.
-J
