Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
- DB
- Jun 11
- 3 min read
It may be for the best if this was to truly be the final mission for Ethan Hunt.
Here's what I've been watching and playing over the last seven days...
MOVIES
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning
Movie summary: Our lives are the sum of our choices. Tom Cruise is Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. (IMDb)
The problem with continuing to make the villains smarter and the plots more convoluted means there's less wriggle room for how the story can unfold.
Rogue Nation and Fallout both brushed up against going too far but held off just enough to still be thrilling, but The Final Reckoning, like Dead Reckoning before it, is trying a little too hard.
There are multiple points in Dead Reckoning where we're told specific things have to happen, effectively spoiling those sequences because they have to happen after all.
Unfortunately, that logic applies to The Final Reckoning's entire plot, in addition to multiple sequences within it, where a highly-specific sequence of events have to occur for the good guys to avoid failure.
As very few franchises have the balls to go for the outright 'downer' ending of the villain winning, you're almost 100% sure that what the audience have been told must happen is exactly what will happen.
This effectively removes all threat, all tension from the proceedings and I found the final aerial sequence to be enjoyable solely as a spectacle, rather than engaging from a story-telling point of view - and even that's pretty much just a repeat of how Fallout ends, and with a less impressive final showdown with an antagonist to boot!
If there is to be another Mission, I'm hoping that the plot isn't as convoluted next time so we can see how inventive and creative the good guys are rather than watching them take a series of actions that we know they have to succeed at in order for the movie to keep going.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is a well made movie and has some great sequences that could've been even better if the characters weren't constantly spoiling exactly what was going to happen. [5/10]
I'm finally starting my great MCU re-watch and doing so in chronological order of the films' events, rather than release order.
The First Avenger still holds up too, looking great and with a bittersweet ending I don't think Marvel Studios would have the nerve to try these days.
GAMES
My final trip has begun, starting right at the northernmost point in Finland and ending 2,600 miles away at Palermo in the very south of Italy.
It'll take a while to complete, but will be a nice way to say goodbye to the game... unless they re-do the UK, in which case it'll be getting re-installed immediately.
I'm not fond of heights or flying, and this game does occasionally make me queasy as a result, especially when using an exterior camera and hearing the wind that the plane is having to fight - I can't help but imagine myself in the same situation and knowing I'd absolutely hate it!
This has had a few updates since I last played it, so I'm giving it another go to see how it feels, role-playing as someone a little more selfish and easier to anger than before.
TV
I watched the entire thing in a single day and it's still great - I don't think there's any show which nailed the set-up, the characters and their relationships with each other as quickly and as well as this show did.
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