{"id":29756,"date":"2025-05-31T18:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T17:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=29756"},"modified":"2025-05-31T18:51:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T17:51:36","slug":"a-review-of-the-blockbuster-movie-mission-impossible-the-final-reckoning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/?p=29756","title":{"rendered":"A review of the blockbuster movie “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the eighth time in almost 30 years, Ethan Hunt completes an impossible mission, this time saving the entire global population from death or control by a super version of AI called The Entity. If the basic premise seems familiar, that’s because – in spite of a title change – this movie is narratively a sequel to the last, when we were warned that “The key is only the beginning”<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the process, actor and co-producer Tom Cruise, who has performed breathtaking stunts in every film taking him into his 60s, and latterly director and co-writer Christopher McQuarrie, who has helmed the last four of the films, have performed their own version of the impossible: making movie after movie in which the plot veers between the incomprehensible and the risible but the action is endlessly – again this is a work of nearly three hours – thrilling and enjoyable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever you say about Cruise, he is a star and, whatever you say about McQuarrie, the furiously kinetic action, combined with superb cinematography, brilliant cutting and pounding soundtrack, delivers some of the best in absolute entertainment. I’ve seen each film as it was released, whenever possible – as this time – in IMAX, and, for sheer consistency, this has to be a contender for the best action franchise in the history of the cinema. Just don’t ask what it all means and, now I feel, just don’t ask for any more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the eighth time in almost 30 years, Ethan Hunt completes an impossible mission, this time saving the entire global population from death or control by a super version of AI called The Entity. If the basic premise seems familiar, that’s because – in spite of a title change – this movie is narratively a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cultural-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29757,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29756\/revisions\/29757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rogerdarlington.me.uk\/nighthawk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}