Tom Cruise in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING (2025)

 (At long last, I'm free of seeing the trailer for this movie - which I was before every single new theatrical release for 5 months - because... it is here! IMFree you might say! (Spoiler) actually I didnt see the trailers because I was on line for popcorn)

You know the old Howard Hawks axiom - who knows if he said it IRL, but Google tells me it is so when I look it up and they wouldn't lie to me (oh no, kind of relevant to this movie as well) - which is simply "a good movie should have three good scenes and no bad ones." 

That sounds sort of general and nebulous, as in what counts as a "good" or "bad" scene, so to explain you can take his production of 1951 The Thing as an example. There are a lot of scenes of characters talking and trying to figure things out and be the Real Professionals that make his oeuvre distinctive, but you remember the set pieces the most, like when James Arness as the monster attacks and gets set on fire and breaks down the door, things like that.

In other words, movies should make sure to have some scenes or sequences that POP and to just not let you down so much when it is the setting-things-up bits. For the most part, the makers and writers and Cruise and everyone (going back to crusty old Brian De Palma) of the Mission: Impossible series has been particularly skilled at giving audiences that axiom, often on steroids. 

Even with the previous installment, Dead Reckoning, McQuarrie and the stunt and fx and camera and editing teams knew they had to make those set pieces pop, even though the warning signs for trouble were there (not necessarily *bad* scenes, but I can tell going back to my write up two years ago that I was noticing just how... pretentious the talk about "The Entity" was in it).

And now, I'm sad to say, The Final Reckoning has... two good scenes? Maybe three if I'm generous (that scene with Luther and Ethan, the dive into the submarine, and the stunt work specifically with the plane), and plenty of bad, draggy, boring, self important, bloated, over-bearing ones.

I know, getting to an eighth film with the same star over thirty years is an accomplishment. I hope the champagne didnt make up too much of the budget and all. But for at least the first hour, and then still intermittently throughout when characters gave to talk, characters explain, and then explain, and re-explain things again (this was a problem I thought that was put to bed yeard ago once Hollywood stopped getting as many films to play regularly in China, where the thought was/is you have to explain stuff or else no one will get it *EDIT* this is playing in China so, yeah, makes sense), and there are callbacks and even familial connections made that just made me throw up my hands and go "huh? Ok, sure (did you expect Shea Whigham was actually REDACTED's son? Me neither! Who cares?)

The point is, this script is a clunky, lumpy and soggy thing that, ironically still, has a good message deep in its bones on a global-political level, which is simply that nuclear weapons are... bad, actually, and it is dumb that countries have them and have not engaged in a much larger scale disarmament (how that would happen isn't for this review to untangle). It also points to Ethan as being close to Spy Jesus, like he will be the savior for every one of us even as many people would much rather see him very dead.

Cruise is still locked in, as are much of the rest of the cast (I do not care for the actor playing Gabriel though, way too stiff and cold, as he was in the last movie, maybe not the actor's fault but kinda), but there is so so much exposition to get through that by the time the movie actually connects things to a character we all forgot about from the first one (the dude blowing chunks in that big white control room with the glasses sent away to remote Arctic), it is almost a breath of fresh air because, hey, at least it isn't a boring it lame attempt at pathos.

How is the action? That is what makes my reaction a little complicated since, objectively, it still slaps. I was probably even more impressed in a way with the submarine set piece since it was the chunk of the movie that took its time and it felt earned, like "we are going to slow down the pace, but stick with it, it will be worth it," and it is. And the plane stunts are what we come to see these movies for - ie play the game of "How many other full length movies could have been funded with the cost of Tom Cruise's life and casualty insurance premium" and your head will spin - though by the time that big climactic sequence unfolds, we are at the final half hour of a movie that has taken way too long to get to where it needs to.

Maybe I shouldn't take this so seriously, yet again I resent that the movie takes itself so seriously, like (aside from that Nuclear Weapons = bad, actually message), this really should not be some grand epic that makes me contemplate our place in society and the universe. There probably is some deeper meaning with the Evil AI that clouds the mind and if you think like it it is going to twist you into being an evil thing as well, but for now I am just finding it of a piece with what is so silly here.

The fun of Spy craft and espionage action cinema is that the details of what is in the missions and the double crosses and double dealings are easy enough to understand. In this entry, I just had more questions like "well, ehat about those conspiracy groups that worship the Entity? What exactly are they going to do if it finally is destroyed?" Maybe I am overthinking it, but the movie so very much wants me to think deeply about how meddlesome AI is, and all I can think about when we see the Entity, like when Ethan puts on the helmet to listen to what it says, it just makes me think of, well, God from Star Trek 5 The Final Frontier... which, nah, dog, Im good without thinking what the Entity needs with a starship (but I digress).

What I'm getting at is The Final Reckoning does have spectacular portions in it, and to be fair on the emotional front of things Pegg and Rhames bring their talents here as much as they can (though the latter has to go through a lot of hackneyed talk in the final voice over), and there is a whole lot of who gives a shit that marks it as something differently not good from even when the series was at its lowest with 2 and 3 (which in retrospect makes me wonder if I would find them better on re watch).

 This thing is 3 hours long and feels like 5. And speaking of Cruise, lastly I will say that if Top Gun Maverick was like a gourmet fast food meal, the Final Reckoning is like a very big sandwich that you get from your super market. I can dig a big sandwich, but... *all* of that? Can I run to the loo at least?