Melton1 — 3 months ago(January 04, 2026 06:09 AM)

There’s just no need for these junk food action movies to be Godfather-length epics.
This one has one of the greatest action sequences of the series - the biplane chase/fight. It is
phenomenal
. The problem is you have to wade through over 2 hours of bloat to get there.
There’s a pretty cool submarine scene on the way but it’s not as good as the underwater scene in Rogue Nation.
The film needed at least another action scene in the first act to keep the pulse rate up, but instead it’s meandering backstory, flashbacks and just… talking about **** we don’t care about.
The mood is pretty gloomy too. It’s not a self-loathing, audience-loathing depression-fest like Craig’s final Bond, but it lacks the fun and energy of the best M:I films.
It also strafed a little too close to woke with nearly all heroic side characters being women and/or black. Butch lesbian aircraft carrier lady. Black female president. Super-cool black sub captain. Loyal sub tranny. With assholes generally being white males - like Briggs, Kittridge, the sub traitor, and Holt McCallany’s warmongering military chief. Come on Cruise, you’re better than this.
It was weird that we didn’t see Julia in this supposed final instalment, and the ending was rushed and weird with no dialogue and Cruise
disappearing with the AI instead of destroying it
as he has been saying he will constantly throughout the last two films ‍️
It’s worth the ticket price for the bi-plane bit, which was so tense it actually hurt to watch it, in a good way. I’ll buy it on 4K disc to complete the collection but I’m not jumping up and down with excitement to watch it again.
Cruise and McQuarrie made for a great creative team with 5 and 6, but 7 and 8 are terribly written flabby messes.