"Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning" [Review]

★★★ (3 out of 4)

“Defying Gravity,” that power anthem from "Wicked," should have been written for Tom Cruise. If you want to define unlimited look to Cruise in “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning,” the eighth and purported wrapup in the action franchise that Tom Terrific has been churning out since 1996. He was 34 then, he’s 62 now and he’s still the starriest energizer bunny in the Hollywood sky. Here’s my advice on Mission 8, only in theaters where it totally belongs by right of its epic size: See it big.  Hear it loud. And don’t blink during all the talky setups because the next bangar stunt will be up soon to knock you for a tornado of loops. And doing it himself is the default mode for Cruise, a physical phenom who uses every muscle in his body (no A.I. for him) to astonish us. He hasn’t changed.

'Defying Gravity' should have been written for Tom Cruise. At 62, Hollywood’s starriest energizer bunny truly is unlimited. Two things about his eighth and maybe final mission: See it big. Hear it loud.

How's the movie? Huffing and puffing at nearly three hours, truth be told. The critics at the Cannes Film Festival, where the epic debuted, were pickier than usual about the dawdling pace, convoluted plot and star grandstanding. Not likely to matter to audiences jacked up on Cruise being Cruise, meaning firing up his mojo to deliver nirvana for thrill seekers. I don’t need to fill you in on the history of Cruise’s rogue IMF (Impossible Mission Force) undercover agent Ethan Hunt because the movie does that for you in a prologue that serves as Ethan’s greatest hits— sprinting, jumping, climbing, diving, flipping, biking and hanging off every towering skyscraper or speeding jet he can find. Or die trying.

Ethan’s mission, and of course he accepts it, picks up from 2023’s "Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One” with the goal to kick the digital butt of his most insidious and urgent enemy yet: a faceless, soulless artifact of artificial intelligence known as "The Entity." Here’s a baddie no one can see but everyone can hiss: a cyber thingie that lives in the Cloud and runs a doomsday cult against mere mortals, as if that mundane descriptor could ever fit Ethan or Cruise.

Ethan has help from his usual crew. It’s always a kick  to see Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg) and Grace (Hayley Atwell gives sassy-good banter with Cruise).  Team Entity relies on terrorist Gabriel (Esai Morales), and his crazypants assistant Paris (Pom Klementieff) until they both turn on the entitled digital bastard.

The cast is bolstered by a fiery Angela Bassett as POTUS and “Ted Lasso”” Emmy winner Hannah Waddington, in for a minute as an aircraft carrier commander. The real knockout is “Severance” smoothie Tramell Tillman who steals every scene he’s in as a US sub commander.

The bummer is that a lot of the absurdist fun has seeped out of "Mission Impossible” in its swan song, leaving the James Bond series in the lead when it comes to mixing spy action with sexy mischief. By sheer force of will, Cruise keeps the adrenaline pumping when the plot runs aground. Director-writer Christopher McQuarrie, who called the shots on the previous three missions including 2018’s series high “Fallout,” does his damndest to compensate with stunt miracles.

The disorienting Russian submarine action, done in haunting silence, will have you twisting and squirming in your seat as Ethan strains to navigate flooded compartments before the vessel slips off dizzying underwater shelves into briny oblivion. Cheers to the camera wizardry of  Fraser Taggart and a thumping score by Max Aruj and Alfie Godfrey.

But the killer gulp inducing stunt, up there with Ethan’s palm-sweating motorcycle jump over an immense Norwegian canyon last time out, comes when our hero pursues a foe by vaulting between one vintage biplane into another over a looming expanse of South Africa. You never doubt that a dangling Ethan is really a dangling Cruise, risking life and limb so we can get our jollies. Cruise is too skilled to be nursing a death wish. But prepare for your jaw to drop like an anvii, like always.

The frequent knock on “Mission” is that it sacrifices character for flash. Maybe so. We never feel as close to Ethan as we do to the beleaguered top gun Cruise plays as Maverick. Still, the suits are betting that Cruise will pull in the crowds. The budget for “Final Reckoning” is sky high at $400 million, the same price as the Boeing 747 Qater is offering President Trump as a gift. Pick your poison.

Cruise’s skill as an actor is hardly in doubt. Though he’s never won an Oscar, he has a trio of well deserved nominations  for “Born of the Fourth of July, “Jerry Maguire” and his career-best turn as a shady TV huckster in “Magnolia.” I'd throw in "Rain Man" and "Collateral" as well. But it takes something more than acting to fill theaters in decline since the pandemic lockdown.  It takes a star, baby. And if Cruise can save the world, why can't he also save movies? Easy peasy for a supernova whose star is shining on its highest beams.

One More Thing: Forget the word “final” in the title.  I refuse to believe Cruise is done with doing the impossible on screen. It’s in his DNA, just as it’s in ours to watch him fly. So what happens when Cruise is on the highwire, letting acting defer to the joy of shameless showing off as he does in this final reckoning? Freddy Mercury took the words right out of my mouth—“he will, he will rock you."