Action-Adventure Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning/The Final Reckoning

Looking at everyone’s rankings, I have to say that I hate MI:II and MI:III. The rest are amazing. Fallout is my favorite but Dead Reckoning is a close second. Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation are also flat out amazing.

MI was a great film but it hasn’t aged very well. The CGI is pretty cringe and John Voigt as the bad guy hasn’t aged well at all. Plus, as an old guy, I never felt comfortable with the bad guy of the first movie being the Peter Graves character from the original series.
 
I liked it, but the movie is definitely not up to par with the last three. McQuarrie's production style has somehow miraculously pulled off three excellent films, but it finally caught up to him. The first half hour or so felt borderline incoherent as it fluttered between plot points and the very serious mood makes it harder to forgive loose plot elements. That being said, the dive and plane sequences are excellent. Had a very good time watching those. Tillman brought a lot of life in his role. I like that Klementieff got a nice little arc. Their actual plan to trap the Entity I think is interesting and I liked it. It's a far cry from the last three, but it's enjoyable enough. I just can't see myself returning to it too often due to the combination of runtime, tone, and not having enough substance to carry the tone.
 
Did you expect the entity to be a product of the Rabbit foot from Mission 3?!
 
I haven't seen the new one, but my current series rankings would go:

Ghost Protocol
Fallout
Rogue Nation
Dead Reckoning
Mission Impossible
MI: III
MI: II

I am worried about this movie feeling long.
 
Just came back.
I liked it, is very hard for me not to like a Mission: Impossible movie.
That being said...
This movie has so many problems. I think McQuarrie needs to step down. He has stayed one and a half movie too long. The final act is a copy of Fallout's. Like... I couldn't believe just how exactly the same it was.

Also, the reviews weren't lying... my God, the amount of repetitive exposition and the flashbacks, even to things we saw like one minute ago... I can't lie, that became too distracting. Is gonna be very hard to rewatch Dead Reckoning and Final Reckoning back to back. Take a drink someone says "The Entity" and someone dies of alcohol.

I like the serious tone and the military/submarine vibe the middle portion of the film explored but if they make another one, I really really miss the smaller scale, spy-oriented thrills of Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation.

Now, with the negative stuff out of the way, the set pieces are obviously amazing and I honestly can't believe that he didn't die during the biplane sequence. It's insane. The movie clearly soars when it isn't dealing with the Entity or Gabriel or any of that other stuff and it focuses on tangible problems and solutions (like... "we have to get some coordinates"... OK COOL, I can follow that!). Atwell's Grace brings a lot to the movie and she clearly became a replacement for Ilsa, which saddens me.
The underwater sequence was a big highlight, I like how it works as a very different set piece in all the M:I films. Highly effective stuff.

I don't know where I rank it right now, but it's at the bottom half.
 
I’m supposed to see it Monday and the wait is killing me so I’ve been rewatching to previous M:I movies. A few thoughts after watching the first one again.

Tom Cruise has more chemistry with Vanessa Redgrave than he’s had with ANY other actress in any movie.

M:I has such a radically different feel than everything that came after it. The slower pace, the Dutch angles, the dark and moody setting (lots of Europe at night in the rain) all makes for a very unique film. I love the franchise the direction has taken (especially from Ghost Protocol onward) but I wonder what it might have been like if De Palma had come back for more films.

The train sequence holds up incredibly well. I watched a video that explained how they did it and it really is amazing that they managed to make it all look so real back in 1996. It looks better than most action sequences these days. The guys who did it were the ones who invented Photoshop. I guess it’s a good thing they got that sequence out of the way back then because if this series tried to do the same sequence today, Cruise would want to do it for real and would probably kill himself.

Also, I forgot that they spoiled EVERY single action scene in the trailer for this movie lol:

 
Last edited:
Deck Rickard said:
I’m supposed to see it Monday and the wait is killing me so I’ve been rewatching to previous M:I movies. A few thoughts after watching the first one again.

Tom Cruise has more chemistry with Vanessa Redgrave than he’s had with ANY other actress in any movie.

M:I has such a radically different feel than everything that came after it. The slower pace, the Dutch angles, the dark and moody setting (lots of Europe at night in the rain) all makes for a very unique film. I love the franchise the direction has taken (especially from Ghost Protocol onward) but I wonder what it might have been like if De Palma had come back from more films.

The train sequence holds up incredibly well. I watched a video that explained how they did it and it really is amazing that they managed to make it all look so real back in 1996. It looks better than most action sequences these days. The guys who did it were the ones who invented Photoshop. I guess it’s a good thing they got that sequence out of the way back then because if this series tried to do the same sequence today, Cruise would want to do it for real and would probably kill himself.

Also, I forgot that they spoiled EVERY single action scene in the trailer for this movie lol:

Click to expand...

The only thing in that trailer NOT in the film is, THE LOVE SCENE!
 
Mysteryman said:
The only thing in that trailer NOT in the film is, THE LOVE SCENE!
Click to expand...

Haha yeah I’m guessing that was filmed before they abandoned the love triangle idea in the movie. Which made it so weird when Phelps says that thing at the end about Hunt coveting his wife. Also, Jon Voight with anyone is gross but especially with a woman that much younger than him lol. Although I just realized that Cruise is now older than Voight was when he was in M:I.

Also, I had forgotten that Kittridge has a right hand man who looks exactly like Peter Graves. I remember when I saw it for the first time, the whole time I was thinking, “Is that the guy from the original Mission Impossible show?”
 
Just got back from it. Overall, I enjoyed it but the first hour definitely could have used some trimming.
The constant spoonfeeding the audience to remind them of events from the previous films got annoying after a while, specifically the Dead Reckoning callbacks.

I did really enjoy the third act. The plane sequence has been the centerpiece of the marketing and it absolutely didn't disappoint. As far as franchise villains go, Gabriel was no Owen Davian but his death might have been the most satisfying in the franchise IMO.

This also wasn't as "Final" as I expected. I really commend them for not taking the No Time to Die route and killing off Ethan, although it still stung seeing Luther die. I'm fully expecting Cruise to come back for another, though maybe not as physically once his age starts to catch up to him.

It's near the bottom of my ranking but I truly do think that they're all good except for II.

1. Fallout
2. Dead Reckoning
3. Ghost Protocol
4. Mission: Impossible III
5. Mission: Impossible
6. Rogue Nation
7. The Final Reckoning
8. Mission: Impossible II
 
Drizzle said:
Just got back from it. Overall, I enjoyed it but the first hour definitely could have used some trimming.
The constant spoonfeeding the audience to remind them of events from the previous films got annoying after a while, specifically the Dead Reckoning callbacks.

I did really enjoy the third act. The plane sequence has been the centerpiece of the marketing and it absolutely didn't disappoint. As far as franchise villains go, Gabriel was no Owen Davian but his death might have been the most satisfying in the franchise IMO.

This also wasn't as "Final" as I expected. I really commend them for not taking the No Time to Die route and killing off Ethan, although it still stung seeing Luther die. I'm fully expecting Cruise to come back for another, though maybe not as physically once his age starts to catch up to him.

It's near the bottom of my ranking but I truly do think that they're all good except for II.

1. Fallout
2. Dead Reckoning
3. Ghost Protocol
4. Mission: Impossible III
5. Mission: Impossible
6. Rogue Nation
7. The Final Reckoning
8. Mission: Impossible II
Click to expand...
tom-cruise-what.gif
 
The plane and even more so the submarine sequence in the movie were excellent and are one of the reasons cinema should never die as a medium. But to be honest the script was a mess.

First act is really rough, with endless and unnecessary exposition that really tired me and felt it neither helped the ones familiar with the franchise nor the ones that are not. The never ending information eventually did more damage than good. Also it lacked a breathing moment. It got better but eventually never hit as much as I wanted and hoped for.

This type of larger than life stakes didn't work for me in this series. There were many questionable moments like the Briggs past connection and all the stuff with the President and her staff that was cringeworthy, some characters that didn't offer much but the team dynamic was for the most part good, though not as much as in previous films. I really liked Rolf Saxon's character and his wife, they were good additions.

Overall I'd say story, characters and the closure disappointed me a lot because I had huge expectations but the action kind of almost makes up for it. To be honest there is no MI movie that I haven't enjoyed at all and that's a big accomplice for a 30 year old franchise with eight movies.

My ranking is the following:

Fallout
Rogue Nation
Dead Reckoning
Mission Impossible
III
Ghost Protocol
Final Reckoning
II
 
Filmfreak said:
The plane and even more so the submarine sequence in the movie were excellent and are one of the reasons cinema should never die as a medium. But to be honest the script was a mess.

First act is really rough, with endless and unnecessary exposition that really tired me and felt it neither helped the ones familiar with the franchise nor the ones that are not. The never ending information eventually did more damage than good. Also it lacked a breathing moment. It got better but eventually never hit as much as I wanted and hoped for.

This type of larger than life stakes didn't work for me in this series. There were many questionable moments like the Briggs past connection and all the stuff with the President and her staff that was cringeworthy, some characters that didn't offer much but the team dynamic was for the most part good, though not as much as in previous films. I really liked Rolf Saxon's character and his wife, they were good additions.

Overall I'd say story, characters and the closure disappointed me a lot because I had huge expectations but the action kind of almost makes up for it. To be honest there is no MI movie that I haven't enjoyed at all and that's a big accomplice for a 30 year old franchise with eight movies.

My ranking is the following:

Fallout
Rogue Nation
Dead Reckoning
Mission Impossible
III
Ghost Protocol
Final Reckoning
II
Click to expand...
Is it Nolan level exposition? 🤔
 
Lily Adler said:
Is it Nolan level exposition? 🤔
Click to expand...
Funny, I was going to comment something like "even Nolan would be 'I'm out'". It rarely bothers me with his films for some reason and generally I'm mostly ok with exposition. Sometimes it's necessary and it all depends on the execution. But here it was endless, combined with numerous "previously on MI" references along with flashbacks and convoluted plot lines almost made me check out.
 
The first hour in particular is messy as hell, and it's kind of shocking to see writing and editing this sloppy from the team behind all these modern action classics, but the movie picks up so much for the last two thirds that it was still an enjoyable experience for me. I'd love another one, tbh.

Ranking:

Fallout
Rogue Nation
Mission: Impossible
Dead Reckoning
Ghost Protocol
The Final Reckoning
Mission: Impossible III
Mission: Impossible II
 
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