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| Images courtesy of Paramount Pictures |
The team has assembled for what could be the concluding adventure in the long running Mission: Impossible saga. Somehow, we doubt that. It will be back in some new incarnation in the future.
If anything can be said for MI8: The Final Reckoning is that it’s an absolute juggernaut of an action spectacle layered in some of the finest looking sequences ever assembled on film. With tightly wound writing and a freshly expanded sense of humor, this eighth entry brings Ethan Hunt’s arc to a close with substance, style and visual flair that far exceeds all expectations. Where most franchises wither and die, the MI brand only gets better with time. Each subsequent chapter over the last 30 years has continually upped the ante with mesmerizing practical stunt work and escapist espionage chronicles rooted in an enhanced reality where technology runs amok and highly trained agents fight for humanity’s survival against a ticking clock of doom.
Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning was somewhat closer to the DePalma original. There were more scenes in dark alleyways and closer-knit hand to hand combat scenes that relied heavily on a much leaner and grislier villain that connected directly to Hunt’s ever evolving backstory. It felt like a departure from MI: Fallout, which seemed like it couldn’t be topped. It got back to the series' core. The spy factor was back. And old hat became new again. Cruise and team expand on that here but go full tilt with the scenarios they’ve carefully implemented for this summer's box office.
MI8 expands on the series’ main elements but takes audiences to new death-defying heights with a franchise defining aerial segment and underwater scene that are arguably the best of the entire run. It’s wholly unimaginable how they filmed some of this without its 63-year-old star hurting or maiming himself. Cruise may get bashed routinely, but the man is a full tilt action icon that’s given years to this brand. His dedication is unquestionable. And his penchant for staring death in the face is unrelenting, all in the name of our entertainment. Respect.
While most of the movie lands on its feet, it often times rides the fine line between science fiction and some unabashed fan service embedded with minor, if unneeded retcons and flashbacks. Some of this might drive its viewership to question director Chris McQuarries’ motives and direction, but it ultimately rights course as we jaunt between action set pieces and carefully choreographed gun play scenes that are fully vested in the world they’ve built. There's some very interesting use of camerawork that pays specific tribute to Hitchcock by way of DePalma via McQuarrie that is simply stunning to look at. You'll know it when you see it and it's just beautiful to view in stunning IMAX.
This latest chapter attempts to fill in the blanks and makes various pacing errors along the way that only stretch the run time to nearly three hours. It is somewhat overlong and drones on with the amount of call backs to the previous films. Much like Star Wars or various other movie series that have seen endless continuations, MI8 definitely uses its past a little too much. We know where we’ve been and we don’t need to be beat over the head with it. Instead of looking backwards so much, the focus should have always been on the present and how the team moves forward.
In a sense, this seems like it could be the end. It does give us closure for Mission: Impossible and the hero’s journey of one battle worn Ethan Hunt. However, the door will always be open for an expansion of this brand. Mcquarrie handles this with a calm and collected sleight of hand. Newer characters emerge and form a rogue band to battle against the Entity and Esai Morales’ Gabriel. Folks from the other films re-align as major plot points. The story moves at a frenetic pace, cramming in as much tech jargon as possible, keeping up with modern themes about World War III and nuclear calamity. This is Mission Impossible dialed to eleven with no guardrails protecting any of the characters. You have one choice. Do you accept this mission?
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-CG