let’s start by showing yall the trailers shall we?

🎬 So Where Do I Begin?

Well I think we need to talk about the fact how this film was delayed.

Remember back in 2023 how I reviewed Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1? Yeah go check that review out if u don’t, I recommend that review.

But I bet y’all are wondering wait if that film was called Dead Reckoning Part 1, then why’s this film not titled Dead Reckoning Part 2 but instead titled The Final Reckoning?

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🧠 Marketing Logic? Not So Much

Well to answer that, the answer is idk. According to the internet this is what it says.

The Mission: Impossible franchise’s eighth installment, previously titled “Dead Reckoning Part 2,” was rebranded as “The Final Reckoning” due to a combination of marketing strategies and the previous film’s box office performance. Paramount Pictures decided to market the movie as a standalone, potentially final entry in the franchise.

Well I’m glad to see they couldn’t even commit through a 2 parter.

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⏳ Why the Delay?

But I can tell u this the film was originally supposed to release last year but was delayed for 2 reasons.

1. The actors strike.
2. The writers strike.

I did say 2 reasons, and they are valid reasons. On a side note how do I feel about this film? Well I think should say everything about how I felt about this film.

I’d say this film felt half baked, emphasis on half.

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📼 So What’s the Plot Rundown?

So basically the president begs Ethan to come help with this AI mess. Why him? Cuz he’s been off the grid and won’t talk to anyone.

And how does she contact him? With a VHS tape that she somehow activated to self destruct after he watched it.

No don’t ask me how the president activated a VHS tape to self destruct.

Reasons why Ethan needs to come help is because he has the master key to open the vault in the submarine that’s at the bottom of the ocean.

Also the AI’s got a whole group of cultists now who worship it and follow its every command.

The government wants to use the AI to their advantage, while Ethan wants to destroy it.

While Gabrial (the villain from the last film) (and still played by Esai Morales) wants to use Ethan to gain access to the vault to get the Plat Cova, yeah don’t ask me what it’s called that.

Why does he want it? For the same reason the entity wants to be set free from the sub, so Ethan can take it to this end-of-the-world bunker, where it can hack into a bunch of tech and basically start a nuclear war against every country, Ethan ain’t gonna have any of that.

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🚁 Team Assembly Time

So Ethan goes on his own, he asks the president for a helicopter. He gets one and was given access to a submarine, where the sub picks him up so he can get a location signal from his friends.

Grace (played by Hayley Atwell)

Paris (played by Pom Klementieff) (yes that assassin who worked with Gabrial in Dead Reckoning Part 1, but now she’s a good guy who wants revenge on Gabrial for leaving her for dead)

Benji Dunn (played by Simon Pegg)

Greg Tarzan Davis (thats the name of the actor, I don’t remember his characters name) (also he was the side kick to that guy Briggs (played by Shea Whigham) who the both of them were after Ethan in Dead Reckoning Part but 1, so why’s Greg now on this team for this entire film is beyond me)

Go off to the Arctic to a remote building that’s got this old code machine to send a signal to Ethan.

There they meet CIA Analyst William (played by Rolf Saxon) (he apparently appeared in the first film during that iconic scene of Ethan being lowered down into a white room via a cable)

Ans his wife, who are being held by gun point by Russians, don’t worry, they play absolutely no role in this film.

Also If yall wondering wait where’s Luther (played by Ving Rhames)? Well that will be reveleaed in the spoilers.

Also Luther (Ving Rhames) made this device that’s basically a virus for the Plat Cova, if u connect both together it essentially fries it. If that happens the entity will jump into one the machines in the bunker and he also built this chip where u insert it into one the machines and if times right they could trap the entity inside it before it does damage.

How clever, unfortunately Gabrial steels the virus key that Luther had with him.

Oh last thing I’ll mention they do get the coordinate to the submarine after dealing with those Russians, turns out the wrecked sub from the beginning of the last film is 2k meters down beneath the sub Ethan is in right now.

So Ethan is given a compressor suit and is sent down, so will Ethan get the Plat Cova? Will the gang make it to their destination to save Ethan from dying from both drowning and the cold?

Will they make it to Gabrial and get that virus chip back? Will they stop the entity once and for all? Where’s Luther? All will be reveleaed in the spoilers.

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😵‍💫 So How Was It Though?

But for now I want to mention my thoughts on this film, overall I’m mixed. As a supposed finale to the franchise, this was a mess of a film.

About half of it was bad, let me explain why and how. Here’s my essentially problems with this film

• The first issue is this movie is 2 hours and 49 min, that’s not an issue on its own but the fact that the first hour is terrible, thr first hour consists of

Bad editing transection to a new scene and another.

Back flash footage of all previous Mission Impossible films, like the fans have forgot about this franchise, I mean almost every line in the first hour was exposition dump spliced with mention of previous things that Tom Cruise did spliced with footage.

If u wanna know how bad the editing is, let me give u an example. One scene we have the gang ask Ethan how they gonna find Gabrial? The next scene cuts to that assassin lady being transferred over by some guards, also no the film doesn’t explain how she’s still alive because at the end of thr last film she looked like she died.

Just then 2 guards attack thr 2 other guards. The 2 guards that get attacked are Greg and Briggs, Briggs gets knocked out and Greg gets convinced to put his gun down, who are the 2 guard who attacked them? Ethan and Benji who are wearing masks.

What do they just carry these with them now?

next scene we cut to Ethan in a suit at some event!

Ok are y’all starting to catch on to how abysmal this editing is?

• Gabrials death has got to one of if not the most dumbest/goofiest deaths I’ve seen in a action franchise.

• I truly belive by this film we’ve entered Fast and Furious stupidity levels of logic and writing.

• The villian is extremely boring, heck he comes off as a cartoon villian, as if this is Wildly Kyote or something, heck one line he’s given in this film is him saying “catch me if u can” Yeah we’re getting to that kinda dumb writing.

Or this abysmal line, “I want u to tell me Ethan that I won and that u lost” sighhhh no amount of good acting can make that line sound good, it sounds like something an older brother would say to his younger brother.

• In less than simple terms, this film to me feels too shallow with little to no depth, but this franchise has had that issue for a while.

• For a supposed finale this film vaguely feels like a finale. Heck it’s no where as impacful compared to the last and finale James Bond film which truly felt like the finale.

Feels like the way thr film ends is pretty much just the equivalent of “Hey guys u did a good job at work today, see yall monday”.

• For most the movie Ethan and his group are separated, usually the highlights of this franchise was between the comradery between Ethan and his friends, here they are separated. This doesn’t help the film at all.

• I kid you not, Tom Cruise in this film is treated like he’s the Messiah, he’s the freaking Lisan al Gaib. Talk about his ego showing.

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🌟 Positives?

• There’s a specific scene I liked whwre in this scene Tom Cruise is fighting a corrupt solder on thr submarine he’s on and they both fall on thr floor, Ethan starts kicking the soldier and while doing that he says “ur on the internet way too long!” Hahaha hahaha.

• Gabrials death has got to one of if not the most dumbest/goofiest deaths I’ve seen in a action franchise.

•The actors do a great job of course.

• The film is gorgeous, the cinematography is amazing and I got to dip my hats off to Tom Cruise for being an absolute loon. The guy puts his life on the line to do dangerous stunts, in this film he.

Hangs off the side of a small plane that’s being piloted by Gabrial.

Scuba dives down 2k meters to the crashed submarine and swims back up to the surface in just his drawers, are we sure Tom isn’t clinically ill? Or mentally ill?

Also the scene of him diving underwater in the dark and go inside a wrecked submarine with dead bodies in it gave me massive anxiety including the planw scene, I don’t do good with heights or the ocean.

• The comedy in this film is legit funny, yes there’s comedy in this film.

• Lastly I liked that one of the military guys in the president’s room was played by the guy who played Bill in The Last Of Us Season 1.

No that’s really all the compliments I can find to give this film, so overall yeah it’s a fun reckless mess. Where half it feels like it was made by amateurs, so I’ll give Mission Impossible The Finale Reckoning a solid 5/10.