Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning thrusts Ethan Hunt and his IMF crew into a high-stakes race against a rogue AI threatening global chaos. From icy Arctic depths to adrenaline-fueled aerial clashes, the nearly three-hour finale pits the team against a shadowy enemy tied to Ethan’s past.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Review

Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning is less a movie than an excuse for edge-of-your-seat action sequences loosely strung together by a multitude of the franchise’s signature strategy set-ups/expositional downloads that either catch up the audience from 2023’s Part 1 or lay the groundwork for the film’s next action sequence.

                   

Gabriel, the lead villain/henchman from the first entry, is relegated to background noise as McGuffins and the most fortunate of coincidences move what story there is forward. Fortunately, Esai Morales, who plays Gabriel, is a charismatic and talented performer who nailed the role in the first one. So, his few scenes don’t fall flat, even if the surrounding action overshadows him.

Whereas in Part 1, The Entity was an ever-present force wreaking havoc from the shadows, in The Final Reckoning, the all-powerful AI is nearly a non-entity that must spend most of its time sipping piña coladas on a VR beach because it’s now little more than a plot device that initiates Ethan’s next fetch quest and keeps pressure on the play clock.

Regrettably, many unnecessary decisions reduce what heart the film attempts to engender to a thin plate of sugar glass, as Ethan’s team is needlessly reduced to mostly two-dimensional replacement players. Awkwardly inserted easter eggs and numerous flashbacks to previous films attempt to fill in for organic chemistry and relationship depth, but it’s a poor substitute.

With that said, as extended three-hour-long action scenes go, Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning is a heart-pounding thrill ride that’s completely worth the price of admission. It’s all charisma and explosions, and the most fun you’re likely to have in the theater all year. The practical effects and stunts are astonishing, and even those that had to have been made inside a computer are among the most finely crafted ever put to film, so that they seamlessly blend into the film’s hyper-reality and will have you holding your breath from start to finish.

As this is almost entirely a three-hour-long third act, chances are that your viewing experience will be significantly enhanced by watching Dead Reckoning Part 1 before you go. And, if you do decide to buy a ticket, pay the extra to see it in IMAX with the best Dolby Digital Audio you can find.

Narratively, this final Mission: Impossible may be something of a mess, but as a piece of action-fluff, it doesn’t get much better.

WOKE REPORT

White Boy Calculus

• Since there are heroic legacy white male characters (Ethan and Benji) that can’t be replaced, the studio has to populate the rest of the cast with the most artificially diverse group of people in the background of any scene that can justify having more than only core cast members in it.
• While not all of the bad guys are white, they are all guys, and the only good or even decent white guys are legacy characters.

Where Have All The Cowboys Gone

• The number of women in roles that don’t fit is comically over the top and distracting. Seriously, the female-to-male government employee ratio is at least 5 to 1 in this movie. It’s like the casting director for season 3 of The Mandalorian was in charge.
  • The only exception is the President’s group of advisors, of whom only one is a woman. Of course, she is the only one who keeps her head when the crisis reaches its peak.
  • Black female president? Check.
    • Can we be real for just a moment? Angela Bassett is way overrated. Every one of her characters is the same, overly intense, no-nonsense, stoic, and over-enunciating tough-chick. It worked in Wakanda Forever because she was queen, but that’s it.
  • Diverse female submariners? Check.
    • About 3% of U.S. submariners are women, and they’re all on active duty in this movie.
    • The masculine lesbian one gets a couple of special moments with Ethan… because…
  • Chick navy pilots? Check.
    • About 12% of Navy pilots are women.
  • Just the tiniest Asian female Secret Service Agent? Check.
  • A former model, now lady aircraft carrier commander trying to act tough despite her perfect hair and wearing all of the mascara ever? Check.
    • There has only ever been one female to command an aircraft carrier in U.S. history.