Trpwire Reviews Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning

Mission Improbable?

Tripwire’s senior editor Andrew Colman reviews the latest and possibly last film in Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise series, out in cinemas now, Mission: Impossible-The Final Reckoning…

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Mariela Garriga, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer,
Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Angela Bassett, Shea Whigham,
Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Frederick Schmidt

It’s finally endgame for the Cruise franchise, and as one would expect, there’s a ripping yarn in store. In this entry, the tale hinges on Cruisey preventing non-existent cyber-baddie The Entity from destroying the planet, which essentially involves an extended cat and mouse charade that’s at least an hour too long. Nevertheless, when Ethan Hunt and his crew of canny cronies close in on rogue agent Gabriel (you do wonder where he’s going to live if Earth gets extinguished) things do pick up, to the extent that one could say that this maybe pulpy hogwash, but it’s polished, bravura pulpy hogwash. In fact, despite the paper-thin premise, non-characterisation, and general silliness, the film does score heavily on the impossible part of its remit – Cruise gets to perform some severely trying set pieces that are the very definition of derring do, that just about make up for the utter daftness in the build-up.

MI8 chunders along at a reasonable pace, but all the characters are essentially exposition machines, telling the audience everything that’s happening while it happens as there’s so much cod-scientific nonsense to get through in the service of the MacGuffin. In many ways it shares a lot of tropes with MCU flicks – the cheesy, tacked on sentimentality between the players, the clunky plot devices, the mandatory count down to destruction (on this occasion it’s a real reductio ad absurdum), the ability of everyone involved to be good at everything, including surgery and jury rigging life-saving equipment etc.

However, there are, as mentioned, two brilliantly staged old-school action sequences involving Cruise that are basically the entire reason to see this movie – the extended submarine section, which is all gloom, mazy claustrophobia and no dialogue, and the biplane extravaganza at the end, which out-Bonds Bond, particularly the Connery version. The rest is strict formula, with Simon Pegg being annoying as ever. Angela Bassett is good value as the POTUS as she plays it straight and with depth, and is actually given the chance to act.

In the end what is sorely lacking is a proper nemesis, with the film opting for a cackling lightweight villain in Esai Morales’s Gabriel. Morales is decent, but the existential threat is permanently off-screen, and once everything is sorted the team gain possession of “the glowy thing”, which really is far too MCU for comfort.

Despite all the usual carping it still provides sufficient entertainment –  this maybe an exhausting and overlong ride but it’s preferable to the MCU mulch in certain ways as it has absolutely zero pretensions, with no mood, atmospherics, context or indeed anything whatsoever that might get in the way of Cruise basically being Superman without the spandex. And yet the 62-year-old lead and his stunt-co-ordinators and technicians manage to imbue the proceedings with enough conviction and intensity that disbelief is suspended.

And that is entirely the point –  it’s an action movie, and nothing else. See you at Trafalgar Square station!

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is in cinemas now