My love affair with the Mission: Impossible series has not been a long one but I have thoroughly enjoyed what I have seen. After previously watching only bits and pieces of select films, I undertook the task to power through the series before its eighth entry released. The series is actually relatively consistent in its solid quality, aside from the second one, but you probably already knew that. They are cheesy, they are wacky but most of all, they are all incredible fun to watch. Even with Mission: Impossible II‘s lack of correlation with the others’ filmic quality, it is still a ridiculously fun film. Tom Cruise’s praises have already been sung about this series many times but it is far from unwarranted. His stuntwork, and his commitment to which, is unparalleled. The sheer ludicrousness of the set pieces is a staple of the series, thanks to him and his amazing cast and crew. All of the qualities, and trappings, of the series are ever-present in The Final Reckoning and whilst it takes a bit of time to kick into gear, this is a lovely celebration of a special set of films.

Following on from the cliffhanger ending of Dead Reckoning, the world is under threat by the malicious Artificial Intelligence known as The Entity. It is invading all of cyberspace and influencing the media in any way it sees fit. Much of the world has gone under martial law to try and control the chaos that has broken out. Some people want to destroy The Entity, our IMF crew in particular, some want to control it and some fanatics worship it like a God. Most alarmingly of all, The Enitity is making a power move for all of the nuclear weapons in the world, trying to take them nation by nation. In a race against time, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF crew, that no longer fight for a flag, have a plan to stop it. The mission, that this time they have no choice but to accept, is to find The Entity’s source code somewhere in the deep of the world’s oceans, which would let them destroy it once and for all. As tensions boil between the nuclear-equipped nations, can the team accomplish their mission before The Entity destroys the world?

For those pre-release reviews that said the premise was over the top, have you actually watched any of these films before? They have always been crackers, this is nothing new at all. In fact, there has been a natural progression in the stakes of each of these films and rather than dealing with the death of many millions, it is now billions. However, the main problem with The Final Reckoning is how it sets all of that up. By no means is the first act of this film catastrophically bad, but it is certainly messy. First of all, there is an abundance of flashback material to the point where it’s silly. They are obviously trying to catch people up or remind them but there is too much of it. Frankly if you had not watched the previous films, particularly the previous entry, it would not make any sense to watch this one. Therefore, it only makes sense to rely on the audience’s own intelligence and initiative to remember the previous films or catch up with them accordingly before this one. It results in this one having a very patchy first act full of random flashbacks and it gets too much. Somehow worse than that though is the heavy exposition dumps. This is a prominent issue in the whole film, perhaps the series, but the first act is by far the worst offender with almost every scene being dedicated to explaining stuff. There are some smaller scale set piece moments sprinkled in to try and break it all up but the problem is still glaring. Thankfully, as soon as we get past that stumbling block, the rest of the film is back to what the series does best.

I have already said how the set pieces and stunts for the series are wacky and over the top, and they are at their best for being this way. In The Final Reckoning, we are treated to some of the best set pieces the series has seen, featuring classic nail-biting moments and some of the most ridiculous things you have ever seen. The two main ones are the submarine and the biplane sequences both of which are completely different and yet both so thrilling. The submarine sequence is Ethan’s daring dive into the Sevestopol, in order to try and get the source code of The Entity. It is very tense due a number of outlined factors beforehand that I will not spoil but it is a deeply claustrophobic and endlessly tense sequence that really gets the blood flowing. All this as opposed to the biplane sequence which is more of a classic Mission: Impossible set piece, especially for its wackiness. Everything that happens here is tense but also tongue-in-cheek and self-aware of its stupidity. This perfectly showcases both Cruise and the director, Christopher McQuarrie’s, strengths in their versatility. McQuarrie differentiates the mood of these scenes well without making them seem like they are in two different films entirely and Cruise is excellent at following through with that execution. The biplane scene for example is quite comedic and feels like pure popcorn fun whereas with the submarine sequence, you will forget your popcorn is there due to being on the edge of your seat, or sitting with your head in your hands. If that is not a good point of endorsement for a Mission: Impossible film, then I do not know what is.

No Mission: Impossible film is complete without a good crew to complete it and luckily it succeeds with that once again. Amongst Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, we have classic characters like Benji (Simon Pegg) and Luther (Ving Rhames) as well as newer ones like Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Paris (Pom Klementieff). Each one of them has their moments to shine by doing what they do best and is shows McQuarrie knows how to play to each character’s strengths by now. Performances are all great by everyone too with Cruise obviously delivering his huge boisterous presence as the primary treat. He really knows how to play this character now with his unending stoicness and yet showing his vunerability when Hunt is put in sticky situations, with and without his ensemble. Though some get more time to shine than others, the characters are still balanced well enough and written competently towards the conclusion. If this is indeed the final film in the franchise, it will be a satisfying ending for all characters. Should there be another installment though, it is still in a good place for a continuation, though I personally believe it is capped off nicely enough that we do not need anymore.

It is always nice to see a long running franchise manage to stick the landing like The Final Reckoning does. Many have said this is a huge piece of nostalgia bait and whilst I can see that in pockets with some of its references and flashbacks, much of this is definitely new stakes and a new level of craziness when it comes to the franchise’s signature action. You do not necessarily come into these films for the most well written masterpiece in the world because that is simply not their purpose. My personal favourite, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is an exceptional film but that is down to its non-stop thrilling nature rather than a sharply written screenplay. The thrills of this film match the franchise’s best and though its first act is a bit messy, it quickly readjusts itself to become a real rollercoaster ride for the last two hours or so. Cruise deserves a lot of respect for his dedication to the franchise over the years and this film is a neat celebration of just that. If you have not seen the other films, I assure you, it is no chore to watch them and the experience of watching this on the big screen at the end will be all the better for it.