Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Review

May 23, 2025 at 5:33pm
By Jason Stettner

Things don’t always go to plan, and that was certainly the case for The Final Reckoning. The conclusion to the long running Mission Impossible franchise. I say that in the sense that this was supposed to be the second part of Dead Reckoning and that this has released later than anticipated as it’s been quite a wait. It’s been a long ride with this action franchise and it’s somewhat sad to see it come to a close.

It’s always sort of been there, and mostly was just a question of when this series would pop up again. The ultimate action vessel for Tom Cruise and his heroic character Ethan Hunt. Anyways, they loosely tied the whole series together for this finale with references to the past while aiming to put an end to the powerful Entity.

The results here are somewhat messy, particularly in the first hour or so of the film. It was basically just recapping and every time something from the past was referenced an old clip would play. I guess it’s good for those that have never watched the older movies but for someone that has it was painfully slow.

Once things kick into gear it’s quite an exciting watch and it’s another great Mission Impossible film but I can certainly see that this series peaked with Fallout. I believe fans will be pleased by the overall narrative as there are stakes, emotional hits and epic set pieces. At the same time I felt we were retreading past events, specifically from Fallout but slightly adjusted stunts wise.

While the action is the centerpiece, these movies really are built around the crazy adventures that the cast goes on. There are many, many characters and moving pieces in this one. That means character development is minimal. Kittridge (Henry Czerny) was just sort of there this time around and others were kind of just present.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is the center here with high emotional stakes between his core crew. There was powerful bits with Luther (Ving Rhames) and of course ever high danger for Benji (Simon Pegg). Grace (Hayley Atwell) really shined here but also made me greatly feel that Ilsa was just sort of shoved aside entirely.

Probably the worst off was Gabriel (Esai Morales) who became a one dimensional villain which was such a shame. Literally no expansion of the character or his connection to Ethan Hunt making Dead Reckoning feel even weaker upon reflection. There were many other characters, but I’d be here all day talking about the cast.

The stunts were of course epic, and a spectacle to take in. At the same time I felt they had already all been done prior in the series outside of the mostly quiet aside from one unneeded outburst during a wild submarine voyage. It was still all shot wonderfully feeling massive in scale at times, and the intensity of this conflict really felt realistic in that things were happening globally.

The Conclusion

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is at times messy, but it delivers on the action and is a solid conclusion to what’s been an incredible journey. It’s sort of funny that I have a laundry list of issues with the movie but at the same time I just enjoyed it. Even when there are problems the way these movies are done is just still a blast.

I liked watching them, and they work. There were well done stakes, the tension was great and I was sort of surprised at just how precise things had to be. Though it makes sense, the missions are of course meant to be impossible. There were certainly some weaker aspects to this and it felt worse off compared to Dead Reckoning. The Entity really didn’t have enough of a presence and the villain just came across as silly here without a whole lot to do.

That’s the thing, so many moving pieces and while many work there were so many plotlines just kind of left. If you really think about it, the concept here was ridiculous but it was still just enjoyable. At the end of the day, despite awkward pacing it was still worth viewing and taking in at a theater for the full spectacle of it. Even a weaker Mission Impossible movie is still an excellent joy ride.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Review at Theather with Standard Viewing
Screening Provided by Paramount

Rating Overall: 7.6