For over 30 years, Tom Cruise and team has given us memorable stunts, gritty action and intense storylines—at least for the first few installments. This film is his last hurrah—his swan song for this beloved action franchise. The release of Dead Reckoning was a promise of a return to form for TC—a glimmer of light in the darkness IP-based films were going through at the time. Unfortunately, what Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is, to me, a decline in filmmaking form.

What TC maintained well in The Final Reckoning is his dedication to realism in his stunts. It is almost to the point of suicidal. The submarine and the plane sequences will soon be, or is already, held to high regard as his other memorable stunts. It is probably one of the most intense stunts he’s done so far. I was on the edge of my seat without realizing it until the end; my glutes were literally clenched for the whole sequence. Seeing those stunts in IMAX was a real feast for the eyes, especially the submarine sequences. The transition from 2.39:1 to 1.90:1 in that sequence is up there with Hunger Games: Catching Fire’s transition.

Everything else shows that the team, or at least the screenwriters, were off their game. I tried to understand the fact that they wanted audiences to be able to watch the film without the need to watch every single Mission: Impossible installments beforehand and that they, most probably, wanted to satisfy die-hard fans of the franchise with a bombardment of easter eggs; but man, the barrage of flashbacks and plot reveals—specifically the one where they revealed Briggs was Jim Phelps’ son (played by Jon Voight in Mission: Impossible)—made it feel immensely tacky. This made the whole film feel like it was trying to be a Marvel film. In addition, unlike Dead Reckoning, the plot was rather predictable, which did not make for a very memorable watch. Lastly, I felt that Grace and Gabriel could’ve had a deeper character role in the film. Instead, Grace was turned into an almost love interest and Gabriel into a less menacing antagonist. The only saving grace to the film—pun intended—is Pom Klementieff, who played her character, Paris, to its fullest potential and served as a great straight man and contrast to Simon Pegg’s character, Benji. I would’ve loved to have seen more scenes of them together.

As much as I love Tom Cruise, The Final Reckoning shows him and his team in poor form along with the fact that Mission: Impossible is already a bloated franchise with nothing much more to give. It is saddening to see the franchise end this way, but it is the way it is. It might sound harsh, but Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is a sign of the time—a sign of the time to consider looking at other ventures. Much respect to Tom, our last action hero. I hope his collaboration with Alejandro G. Iñárritu works out well.

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