Film Review - Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and a lookback at the franchise

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning promotional material

The eighth installment in the Mission: Impossible film franchise holds strong with fans and delivers a worthy salute to Tom Cruise's tenure as the super spy.

The Mission: Impossible franchise began as a television series in 1966, running for seven seasons. It was adapted into film in 1996 with Tom Cruise as a new character named Ethan Hunt, who has since become known as one of the greatest spy characters in all of fiction.

The franchise follows the exploits of Ethan Hunt and his team, usually consisting of Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), and many more. Most commonly, Hunt has been framed for a crime he didn't commit or has been wrongfully disavowed from the 'Impossible Mission Force" and must defeat the villain in order to clear his name and save the world. This repeat of the plot element has earned some criticism from fans, but others say it is what makes the character so persistent in fans' hearts.

The franchise as a whole has made over $4.5 billion in worldwide gross, attracting the awe and admiration from fans across the globe. The biggest contributor to the franchise's success is Tom Cruise himself, having produced all films in the franchise and performed the mesmerizing stunts himself. His dedication to realism has earned him praise from moviegoers who are blown away by his work and concern that he might one day pull a stunt that goes too far.

The latest installment was marketed as the potentially last film in the franchise. The creative team behind it has said that this may very well be the end point in the Mission: Impossible timeline but will likely not be the last film. Rumor speculates that this could be the last time that Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt as a main role, but his insistence on bigger and bolder stunts in his movies coming soon, suggest that the 62-year-old actor is not done with the action genre yet.

Praise for the film comes from the daring and bold action sequences, as well as the gripping tension, high stakes, and the heartfelt interaction between characters. Criticisms for the film say that the runtime goes longer than it should, with this film being the longest in the franchise, clocking in at 2h 50m, and that the exposition feels forced in the opening, with the film attempting to connect to the previous installments very heavily.

The film's opening weekend was overshadowed by the tremendous success of the Disney remake of Lilo & Stitch, becoming the Memorial Day opener of the summer blockbuster season. Still, despite lower-than-expected numbers, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning will continue to have a successful theatrical run in the weeks to come. The success is needed, as this film cost $400 million to finance, making it the fourth most expensive film in movie history, giving its "break-even point" at $1 billion, a milestone it may not meet at the present rate.

Author's Note: "I was never really a fan of the Mission: Impossible franchise before this week. I had only seen the first three movies, and I felt that they couldn't hold my attention. But I thought that this could very well be the last installment, so I thought I'd watch the next four films, and I was impressed that they were better than the earlier three. I saw The Final Reckoning in a large theatre by myself, and it was a phenomenal experience to see 30 years of action movie history come to a grand crescendo."