TAGGED AS: Action, blockbusters, movies
After nearly 30 years, the Mission: Impossible franchise is (supposedly) coming to its conclusion, and the first reviews are saying it’s going out on a high note. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt for one last time (?) in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, a direct sequel to the previous installment that also wraps up continuous threads begun in the 1996 original. As with each of these movies, the stunts are lauded for their matchless cinematic spectacle, but some of the plotting has to be excused to appreciate the mind-blowing action scenes.
Here’s what critics are saying about Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning:
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is another epic achievement in filmmaking.
— Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is a globe-trotting and pulse-pounding triumph… The film’s breathtaking scale, death-defying stunts, and Tom Cruise’s dedication to grand storytelling make for a blockbuster masterclass.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel
It’s a fitting tribute to everything this series has been.
— Ross Bonaime, Collider
It’s not an entirely satisfying ending for a series we’ve come to love. But the glorious spectacle of it? Well, that’s sure as hell a reason to get your butt in a seat in front of the biggest screen you can find.
— Sarah Gorr, The Spool
This latest mission… is a more mixed offering than the grand, emotional, and pitch-perfect sendoff Cruise and McQuarrie probably wanted.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
One thing’s for sure, Tom Cruise does always make sure you’ll get enough bang for your buck.
— Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now the best one to date.
— Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
While not the series’ best, Final Reckoning is solidly middle-of-the-pack.
— Jackson Weaver, CBC News
It’s the most enveloping entry in the series since Ghost Protocol because it finds a new way to make the impossible elating.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
It’s the biggest movie the property has offered to date, but is it the best? Unfortunately, it does offer up a lot of the same benefits, as well as issues, from last time around.
— Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
[Most] of The Final Reckoning is a mess, and ranks near the bottom of this long-running franchise.
— Matt Singer, Screen Crush
Fans of the series will appreciate all the nods to this world throughout.
— Ross Bonaime, Collider
It isn’t an understatement to describe Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning as a love letter to the entire franchise.
— Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
With a surprisingly high number of callbacks to the first few films, The Final Reckoning never pretends to be anything other than a sentimental tribute to the franchise.
— Mary Kassel, Screen Rant
A few of the references made me smile; most felt indicative of a film that’s a bit too clever for its own good. Every single thing in every single movie does not need to connect to everything else.
— Matt Singer, Screen Crush
The Final Reckoning’s screenplay is a mixed bag, weighed down by the duo’s ambition to interconnect 30 years’ worth of storytelling.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel
McQuarrie and co. seem to think that what we need to feel satisfied with this epic conclusion is an MCU- or Star Wars–style throughline, with nods and winks to characters past and not one but two separate montages… It doesn’t need any of that.
— Sarah Gorr, The Spool
Surprisingly, The Final Reckoning holds up as a stand-alone feature; the callbacks and in-jokes require a fair bit of knowledge, since they span the franchise’s whole lifetime in unexpected ways, but it’s pretty easy to pick up all the jigsaw pieces and, when it really gets going, immediately forget all about them.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Flashbacks in a franchise can be an efficient way to bring both new and returning viewers up to narrative speed. The ones here do just that.
— Manohla Dargis, New York Times
You don’t have to have been with the franchise from the beginning to enjoy Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, but there’s no denying that it was made for those of us who were.
— Mary Kassel, Screen Rant
McQuarrie and Cruise have truly outdone themselves here, delivering two epic setpieces that will go down as some of the best, if not the best, the franchise has to offer action junkies the world over.
— Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
The film features two jaw-dropping and exhilarating set pieces that rank among the best in the series, each showcasing Cruise’s commitment to the series’ vision and scope.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel
The sequences are genuinely breathtaking, the kind of thrilling movie magic that makes you fall in love with action films.
— Sarah Gorr, The Spool
They’ve managed to stretch the limits with some of the biggest can-you-believe-it stunts that have ever hit the screen.
— Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
Action that even the most jaded film bore can’t say they’ve ever really seen before, arguably topping Dead Reckoning’s train scene.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
The fight choreography is done very well, with each character having clear traits on how they fight and the camera placed at an angle or distance that allows you to see everything clearly and where everyone is in the setting.
— Julian Lytle, RIOTUS
They’re not all-timers like we’ve seen previously, but they do feel suitably big for this doomsday scenario playing out.
— Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
There are moments when The Final Reckoning is preposterous — I’d say knowingly so, though at the screening I attended, there was derisive hipster laughter.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
The films have never been especially grounded… Still, even by those standards, The Final Reckoning is ridiculous and messy.
— Sarah Gorr, The Spool
Final Reckoning lurches further into self-seriousness, which doesn’t sit well on a plot as maddeningly convoluted and, well, silly as this one.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Suspension of disbelief is much wobblier this time, especially in the scenes without any spectacle to distract us.
— David Ehrlich, IndieWire
What saves The Final Reckoning from being dragged down by its unwieldy plot is that it never takes itself too seriously.
— Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy
None of it makes any sense, of course, no matter how sincerely the actors say their lines, yet everything flows.
— Manohla Dargis, New York Times
It doesn’t take much convincing for me to forgive some lazy plotting, as my reward is the kind of filmmaking few are brave enough to attempt.
— Mary Kassel, Screen Rant
There also some truly clunky exchanges — something that has never been the case in the Mission: Impossible franchise before, especially since McQuarrie took over as writer and director.
— Matt Singer, Screen Crush
Did McQuarrie and Jendresen use AI to write this stuff?
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
There’s never a dull moment in what’s been earmarked as the franchise’s finale.
— Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction
The film never gives you time to really rest, as you’re just as driven to see what Ethan and the team have to do next, just as they are doing it.
— Julian Lytle, RIOTUS
Where some films make you feel every minute of a film’s run time, this one didn’t… I did not look at my watch once.
— Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
[The plot] obviously has the potential to be, well, a bit kind of boring, and at times it kind of is, but the wonderfully portentous tone of McQuarrie’s film always keeps us glued to it, always insisting that there will be serious repercussions.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
The Final Reckoning is more of a churning slow burn… No one would claim that this is the breeziest of the M:I films.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
The Final Reckoning doesn’t have [the filmmakers] racing toward the finish line so much as dragging themselves across it.
— Sarah Gorr, The Spool
Tom Cruise is still in a league of his own as an action star.
— David Ehrlich, IndieWire
He literally flies beyond all the stunts he’s done before, leaving us in an exhilarated state of awe.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Cruise delivers a captivating performance that is nuanced, grounded, and reflective of 30 years of missions, personal sacrifice, and loss.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel
This eighth film gives us a terrific new character, US sub commander Capt Bledsoe, played with suavity and the tiniest hint of camp by Tramell Tillman, who has the chops for M:I9 whenever that happens.
— Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
Tramell Tillman is the scene-stealing MVP as Captain Bledsoe, a military submarine skipper helping Ethan reach his target destination.
— Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction
Tillman’s part is small, but gosh, he’s got such charisma that it’s a joy to watch him work. Put him in more movies, Hollywood. Please.
— Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm
Esai Morales elevates the film’s antagonist stakes with his menacing turn as Gabriel offering Ethan a suitable nemesis and threat.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel
Esai Morales is having the most fun as one of the best scenery-chewing, world-threatening bad guys, and he almost feels he is a Bond villain crossing over.
— Julian Lytle, RIOTUS
The climactic biplane chase is somewhat diminished by the sheer worthlessness of the film’s villain (a new low in a franchise that has frequently struggled on that front).
— David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Renegade AI programs make incredibly boring supervillains, and the scariest part is that we’re bound to see a bunch more movies about them. I’ll take marauding robots over angry screensavers.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
The Final Reckoning bursts at the seams, trying to cram in every possible tug on our heartstrings… It is [the franchise’s] most emotional.
— Mary Kassel, Screen Rant
Its emotional moments often ring hollow due to the screenplay’s unevenness.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel
[It gets] a whole lot heavier than usual… heavy in a way that feels totally alien to a franchise that has always been light on its feet, even at times of loss and/or lingering sorrow.
— David Ehrlich, IndieWire
The Final Reckoning isn’t quite as final as the promotional ballyhoo might want you believing… It’s certainly an end, wrapping up seven films’ worth of storylines with a showman’s flourish.
— Damon Wise, Deadline Hollywood Daily
It’s mostly a great send-off to this universe.
— Ross Bonaime, Collider
With the way the film ends, there might be room for more. It’s just really hard to say.
— Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
I don’t believe this is the last time we’ll see Tom Cruise save the world in some crazy life-daring stunt. I gotta have hope, I haven’t seen him run to outer space yet!
— Julian Lytle, RIOTUS
If it’s going to be the last we see of one of the most consistently entertaining franchises to come out of Hollywood in the past few decades — a subject about which Cruise and McQuarrie have remained vague — it’s a disappointing farewell.
— David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens in theaters on May 23, 2025.
