The Final Reckoning’ Is The Worst-Reviewed MI In 19 Years

Not that reviews are bad for Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning out this coming Friday, but they have laid out an interesting comparison point of how the series has “split” in the last thirty years, indicating a clear break point and how The Final Reckoning has slipped well below that.

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is the worst-scoring MI film since 2006, and the first film in the series rated below a 90% since 2001, with its 79%. It’s pretty interesting if you look at it mapped out:

• Mission Impossible – Fallout (2018) – 98%
• Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) – 96%
• Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) – 94%
• Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) – 94%
• Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025) – 79%
• Mission Impossible III (2006) – 72%
• Mission Impossible (1996) – 65%
• Mission Impossible II (2000) – 57%

So, what’s happened here is that Mission Impossible started as a decent action series in its first three films spanning a decade. But after a five-year break, Ghost Protocol started a new era of really, really good MI films that began at a 94% and went up to a 98% for the highest rated film, Fallout. That’s been 12 years of excellently rated action films, a run that we rarely, if ever, see in the genre.

The Final Reckoning? It broke this streak. And it’s fallen a decent amount, 15% below Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, and much closer to MI3’s 72%. Again, a 79% score is not bad, but it has indeed snapped a 12-year streak for the franchise in terms of scores. What are critics saying about its faults? Here are a few takes:

• AP – “It’s hard to shake the feeling that in attempting to tie everything together, “Mission: Impossible” lost the plot.”
• Houston Chronicle – “This disappointing installment, with “M:I” veteran Christopher McQuarrie back in the director’s chair, feels — unlike Cruise’s character — bloated and tired, despite the dizzying, high-flying stunt work at the film’s climax.”
• Mashable – “Rather than going out with a bang, Mission: Impossible may go out with the fizzled whimper of a message self-destructing in a tape deck.”

Of course, there is high praise as well:

• USA Today – “Although if “The Final Reckoning” is indeed at hand, you couldn’t ask for a better death-defying, free-falling, edge-of-your-dang-seat sendoff.”

So, is Mission Impossible ending on a decent, but not amazing note? That depends on whether you trust that Tom Cruise will walk away, or if you believe a huge box office would discourage them from doing more. So we’ll have to see.

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