 Director: Christopher McQuarrie Starring: Tom Cruise Studio: Paramount Pictures Genre(s): Action Rated: PG-13 (For sequences of strong violence and action, bloody images, and brief language) |
The best way to fool the algorithm is to give Ethan a key that he can use to outsmart The Entity. I watch a scene like this and wonder, “Does Tom Cruise think he’s God?” No, dear reader, I am not joking: this is an actual question that goes through my mind while I watch “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” Aside from the fact that Cruise lists his name twice in the opening credits (as both producer and actor), or that he insists on doing his own stunts despite the danger he puts himself in, but the story seems more focused on the fact that Ethan Hunt, the spy agent for hire, is the only person who can save the world from an algorithm that is smarter than Einstein and Jesus combined.
Sure, he can hang off a plane and scale the tallest building in the world (which is found in Dubai for those curious), but does that make him the smartest guy in the room? Smarter than a machine that is learning thousands of facts a second due to being connected to the internet? Maybe Cruise thinks so (he certainly seemed certain there was nothing as depression when he debated Matt Lauer over ten years ago). If anything, you would think something of this scale would result in Ethan being smart enough to realize his team may be more crucial than ever before.
And while many of his team members show up to help (along with a few new faces), their main goal is to support Ethan so that he can accomplish what he needs to do. It makes you wonder what would happen to the world if he were to slip and fall on a banana peel during one of his many running sequences. Never mind. I can tell you right now I am WAAAYYYYY overthinking this! But honestly…can you blame me at this point? “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” isn’t so much offering anything new to the franchise so much as it is making action sequences longer and more bloated. At almost three hours, I couldn’t help but consider Cruise’s God complex.
Because it’s not like there’s enough substantial stuff here to justify making this almost as long as “The Godfather” and “Patton.” Even “The Dark Knight” felt like an action film on a grander scale, and that was at least thirty minutes shorter. There isn’t enough substance to the screenplay to justify the bloated length, except to placate Cruise’s ego. Granted, the action sequences are amazing. While the scene where Cruise is hanging on a plane during an aerial dog fight has been featured prominently in the advertisements, the most impressive sequence may be the much slower-paced submarine mission, in which Ethan must walk a fine line to retrieve an item or risk sinking the ship.
And it is scenes like these that ultimately result in the slight recommendation of “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.” Yes, it’s overlong. Yes, the story is probably the least interesting screenplay we’ve gotten since the second film. And yes, they are leaning into nostalgia and gimmicky cameos as if to remind us why we enjoy the franchise so much. Yet despite these issues, the reason most people watch these movies is for the over-the-top action sequences, and while the ones here may not be the best, they do exist, and they get the job done. The fact that it overstays its welcome is a shame, but considering this is a franchise built on stunts and spectacle, can we blame the filmmakers for wanting to go out with a bang?
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