Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

The Mission: Impossible series comes to a close with this bloated and mostly underwhelming entry, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the picture contains little of the brisk pace and fun atmosphere hardwired into the mostly stellar earlier installments – with the narrative, which follows Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt as he endeavors to stop the malevolent A.I. known as The Entity from destroying the planet, instead focused on tiresome flashbacks and pointless callbacks that cumulatively transform the whole thing into a far-from-enthralling experience. (This is especially true of an absolutely disastrous opening hour overloaded with tedious, interminable instances of relentless exposition.) It’s clear, too, that Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning‘s failure stems from its questionable plot developments (eg the completely arbitrary killing of a longtime character) and an ongoing absence of the propulsive, larger-than-life set-pieces one might’ve anticipated (eg the first proper action sequence doesn’t roll around until past the one-hour mark!), which, despite the inclusion of an admittedly electrifying climax involving a biplane, ultimately does cement the movie’s place as a humorless and incongruously bleak slog that bears few qualities in common with its various predecessors.

** out of ****