MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

"I need you to trust me one last time," Tom Cruise's infallible Ethan Hunt tells Madame Presidente Angela Bassett, but really he's talking to us, the dear audience. The same audience that, for over 30 years and 8 films, Mr. Cruise dedicated his life and career to. It's his neverending quest to film the craziest, most dangerous stunts, all to wow us and maybe just maybe Save Cinema. 

The MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series is THE epitome of what modern action movies can and should be. Starting with the neo-noir tinged blockbuster original by Brian De Palma, each subsequent entry a new auteur brought in to put his stamp. We got the operatic bombast from John Woo in part 2 and more grounded emotion in JJ Abrams' part 3. Brad Bird revitalized the franchise with his animation sensibilities brought in for part 4 (Ghost Protocol) but it all leads to Christopher McQuarrie.

McQ is Tom's guy! His longtime creative partner, often brought in on most of Cruise's projects to punch up the script. He was hired to write/direct part 5 (Rogue Nation, arguably the best one) and has been steering the franchise ever since. 

The beauty of these movies are the standalone nature of each entry. Some more connective tissue was added with later entries but nothing like FAST & FURIOUS or the Marvel movies. So it is to my dismay that Tom and McQ tasked themselves not only with delivering a proper finale, but for some reason feel the need to connect every movie into one long IT ALL LEADS TO THIS convoluted gobbledegook.

This is the weakest Mission, by far. An absolute mess of a story that feels like McQ and team just gave up on delivering anything coherent and instead focused on the spectacular stunts. And my goodness what stunts. A lot has been reported on the epic plane dangling finale which is unbelievably thrilling. But my money for peak scene is the freezing deep sea dive into a rolling submarine.The good thing about this series is that even a bad entry is still pretty damn good. Thanks to the unwavering dedication by Tom Cruise. 

I'm in too deep on this franchise and don't even know how to properly review THE FINAL RECKONING. The movie is a mess but it's a glorious mess. No one has ever or will ever do it like Tom Cruise and for that alone it's worth the price of admission. 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Get  popcorn and watch this on the biggest screen possible. One last time.

⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 out of 4