First Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Reactions Tease High Highs And Low Lows

It's all been leading to this. For the eighth and (potentially) final time, Tom Cruise has put his life on the line to bring pure cinema to the masses with "Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning." This latest installment of the action franchise has been a long time coming, especially after 2023's "Dead Reckoning" ended on a fairly literal cliffhanger. Ethan Hunt came up against the greatest foe he's ever encountered in decades while working for the Impossible Mission Force — relevantly enough, a nefarious artificial intelligence known only as "The Entity." With every country's intelligence community looking for ways to turn such a superpower to their own agendas, Hunt and his tight-knit team of agents had to go rogue (of course) and do everything they could to stop this Entity and its human ally, the mysterious Gabriel (Esai Morales), from essentially taking over the world.

Where "Dead Reckoning" (formerly titled "Part One") promised a grand continuation of this little saga, "The Final Reckoning" has been hinting at something a bit more definitive throughout its stunt-filled marketing campaign. As with any death-defying, special effects-laden blockbuster, however, it's all about sticking the landing. We know Cruise will go from the dizzying heights of a biplane to the chilling depths of the sea, but what about the movie as a whole? Luckily, first reactions to early press screenings are finally beginning to trickle in to social media and the results are looking ... well, all over the map. Does that spell certain doom for our beloved IMF agent and his operatives, or have they somehow managed to pull off the impossible again?

Read on for all the details!

Let's kick things off with reactions from /Film's own team of special agents. Editor and chief film critic Chris Evangelista posted on Twitter (only the Entity calls it "X") that, "I love this series and think all the movies have their charms (even '2'!). But ['The Final Reckoning'] is extremely messy, with way too much exposition. And yet, the grand finale is so jaw-dropping and intense I felt like I was going to throw up (complimentary)." In a testament to the wide-ranging reactions to the latest film, /Film's Bill Bria found much more to enjoy. As he put it, "[Director Chris McQuarrie] & Cruise began their 'Mission: Impossible' tour with an opera; 'The Final Reckoning' sees the duo complete their big swing two-parter as an operatic tour de force. The most emotional & tense 'Mission' yet, the film looks into the abyss (& 'The Abyss') & soars out of it beautifully."

For better and worse, that theme continues among several other critics around the industry, as well. Indiewire's David Ehrlich didn't hold back whatsoever: "'Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning' is dull and dysfunctional in a way I didn't think this franchise was capable of. Set pieces are obviously incredible, but as someone so supportive of Cruise's crusade to save the movies and whatnot this was a massive heartbreaker." Critic Germain Lussier of io9/Gizmodo echoed that sentiment, describing the latest entry as "long," "plotty," and "repetitive." In an additional twist, fans would be well advised to expect what appears to be, "...oddly the least action forward entry in the franchise." But before anyone starts throwing their popcorn and rotten vegetables at the screen, Lussier goes on to say, "...but when those scenes do hit? Holy s***. They're incredible. So I'm pretty mixed on it overall. High highs, low lows." Former /Film editor and critic Hoai Tran-Bui of Inverse describes it as, "...kind of a big, beautiful, chaotic mess. But it's got a sequence so nerve-shreddingly tense I almost threw up, and Tom Cruise in peak Buster Keaton mode. 'Looney Tunes' antics. I loved it."

Perhaps everyone's frantic "Mission: Impossible" marathons in recent weeks weren't in vain. With a title like that, "The Final Reckoning" seemed to imply that this might very well be Tom Cruise's last time suiting up and looking death squarely in the face as Ethan Hunt. While nobody's spilling the beans in that regard, we do know that this sequel certainly lives up to its billing as the "Mission: Impossible" movie of all "Mission: Impossible" movies. That much seems clear in light of several other reactions from critics and journalists.

Take Jake Hamilton of ReelBlend, for instance. In his social media post, he described the film as a "love letter to fans who just re-watched the entire series." Saying that this is the "first time" these movies have made him cry and that the much-hyped plane sequence is "one of cinema's greatest stunts," Hamilton paints a picture of a sequel that's more like a victory lap for the entire franchise. As he put it, "It ties the entire series together as one story rather than 8 entries." Similarly, Erik Davis of Fandango doubled down on that praise: "Director Chris McQuarrie and star Tom Cruise truly take 'Mission: Impossible' to the next level with 'The Final Reckoning.' Absolutely astonishing action moments meet a sprawling story w/ many nods to past 'M:I' films. It's the biggest, wildest and most consequential 'Mission' movie yet." He goes on to describe two particular highlights on the action front: one that plays like a "horror movie," and another that "took my breath away."

But every sweeping declaration seems to have its negative counterpart. Brendan Hodges of Next Best Picture says the film is, "...a maximalist mess; our boys have too many ideas for a movie again, making a somber series tribute with a janky 'Fail Safe'-like nuclear arms plot. Oddly light on action. The big set-pieces are extraordinary. I liked it! Hoped to love it." Discussing Film co-owner and critic Andrew Salazar, meanwhile, says: "It's got McQ's best and worst tendencies, i.e. stunning visuals bogged down by an overtly complex script that introduces so much that goes nowhere. Obviously feels like they were filming this without a script."

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to see for yourself when "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning" hits theaters May 23, 2025.