Tom limps over the line

Regretfully, I would rank (what should surely be) the last Mission Impossible movie (no.8) to be at probably co-equal with the second one as basically bad movies.

As usual, I blame Christopher McQuarrie - who co-wrote this incredibly poor script trying to put some sort of overall whole series coherence on the entire set of movies in a way that felt fake and hardly worth the effort, as well as doing his usual trick of cutting between two sequences at the highlight in a way that detracts from the enjoyment of the (admittedly spectacularly brave) stunt work by Cruise.

This paragraph from a Guardian writer sums it up well:

The last four films, however, bear the imprint of screenwriter turned director Christopher McQuarrie, who concluded that what this series needed was a little more conversation, overseeing the construction of a vast story framework for his star to dangle off one-handed. That approach reaches its apotheosis in The Final Reckoning, but the scaffolding now overwhelms the spectacle. The attempt to solder eight films together ends in much-rewritten incoherence – see Ving Rhames’s confused sendoff – and, worryingly, results in missions being described rather than shown. You wonder whether the insurers blanched after Cruise crocked an ankle shooting 2018’s Fallout; now we’re left with folks talking at length in nondescript rooms. Is this a Mission: Impossible movie, as advertised, or some M:I-themed podcast? 

Now, with the last movie (which I see I was pretty generous to in my comments), I did give it credit for dealing with a topic that had actually become a seriously considered real world issue - what would happen if a rogue AGI wants to take over the world?   Yet, this sequel absolutely botches it - the most interesting idea (that the Entity, as its called) has developed its own doomsday cult and made normal politics impossible because no one can trust any information anymore - is absolutely left unexplored.   The villain has motives that no one can make sense of, and both he and the new love interest are absolutely bloodless.   And the way the AGI is "captured" (as well as Cruise's escape from the sunken submarine) just push my "I know this is just a silly movie, but this is ridiculous" buttons too hard. (Update:  I just remembered - the ridiculousness of the "war room" set, with hundreds of old school situation tables with assets moved by rods.   Now that I think of it, maybe they couldn't trust electronic ones anymore because of the Entity - but this was never said, and the need for scores of such tables still seems silly.)     

Even the very ending - where I assumed would be some sort of indication of a happy retirement for Ethan Hunt - is botched.  

So, yes, I was very disappointed. 

The general feeling of malaise about Hollywood having run out of new ideas that are well executed continues...