Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning
★★☆☆☆
IT felt like an impossible mission to follow 2023’s outrageously exhilarating Dead Reckoning Part One with a dud, but somehow, that mission was accepted.
The eighth and last in the franchise that has given fans some of the most explosive stunts in cinema history has, sadly, fizzled out.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the film begins with a montage of far-too-long flashbacks from the previous seven films.
We then catch up with Ethan Hunt () — and his new bouncy barnet — two months after the last film ended.
Along with his motley crew including Benji (), Luther (Ving Rhames) Grace (Hayley Atwell) and Paris (), he’s still on a mission to stop Gabriel (Esai Morales) from destroying the entire world with AI program The Entity.
It often feels like this digital killer should be renamed The Eternity for the amount of convoluted conversations that take place about it.
But every action film needs a ridiculous baddie and in a world where I , it may well be a reality for us one day.
So I can let that pass.
What I can’t abide is the complete lack of humour or interesting characters.
Grace, who in the last film was a superstar pickpocket, has just flatlined into a woman who stares off into the distance and looks like she might fancy Ethan a bit.
And Paris, a former cut-throat killer, now just nods and has, it seems, selective mutism.
The first two hours are dull in a way I didn’t think the series ever could be.
Having left the cinema after M:I7 two years ago with adrenaline so high I felt in need of beta blockers, this time I was reaching for the defibrillator.
I give an extra star for the last hour, which has a decent amount of death defying stunts, including a wing walk battle as Cruise, again, laughs in the face of insurance bills.
But this goodbye to a brilliant brand really did self-destruct.
