Review: Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning – Cruise control

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie
Starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Esari Morales

6/10

After almost thirty years, this iteration of the IMF team comes to a conclusion with Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning. The previous outing, Mission Impossible : Dead Reckoning, set Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) against a predictive Artificial Intelligence bent on destabilizing governments, by destroying the concept of truth. Pitted against the acolytes of The Entity, Hunt’s team of talented misfits had discovered two halves of a cruciform key that could allow access to the computer’s original code and provide a possible weakness. Unfortunately that code is located in a sunken Russian submarine under the ice cap. This final chapter sees the IMF struggle against a former acolyte (Esari Morales) of The Entity, as they struggle to stop its apocalyptic plan.

With all the setup achieved in the previous film, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning has fixed all the mistakes that made its predecessor a bloated slog of a film. Instead it uses this opportunity to make different mistakes, turning itself into a bloated three hour slog. It uses that freed up time to add unnecessary storylines to try and up the stakes, and to tie the plot back to elements of the previous films of the franchise.

So much so, that the runtime could easily be cut by a third by removing these elements, and a far better film would have resulted. The audience is aware of a ticking clock counting down towards doomsday. We don’t need to flash to the war room to actually see it, and we certainly don’t need an entire plot revolving around that sequence in some vain attempt to justify it. The whole script seems inflated by a sense of self importance, and desperately wastes time and effort in trying to emphasise this to the audience. This reaches almost a religious fervour, with more than a few bits of biblical iconography used in the portrayal of The Entity, but it just drags the film down in its hysterical overuse.

This is further burdened by the ridiculous dialogue meant to punch up the threat level. The characters deliver some of the most ridiculous lines this side of Jupiter Ascending. Esari Morales is particularly hamstrung as the evil Gabriel cackles and capers like a cartoonish pulp villain. Yes, the idea of an omnipotent predictive AI is a high concept, but if Person of Interest can tell that story better in a double episode for a TV budget, you need to do better. The Entity is just Skynet with extra steps, it didn’t need five hours of setup.

So with all this weighing it down, why is Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning still a passable action film? Because the action (when it gets to it) is so damn good, it is simply jaw dropping in its scope and execution. The submarine sequence is exquisite, showcasing the best of digital effects and practical set building. While the barnstorming finale is a callback to silver age Hollywood, while showcasing the cutting edge of modern film techniques. This is a franchise that has defined itself by its set action pieces and it still shines here.

As such, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is a film that defines itself by contradictory factors, exceptional action sequences weighed down by banal storytelling. Despite the budget, the last two outings of the franchise produce a mildly disappointing curtain call for the series.

DAVID O’CONNELL