Mission: Impossible 8 debuts to savage reviews – but sparkles on Rotten Tomatoes

It was supposed to be the biggest blockbuster debut of the year – but Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (M:I 8) may have just hit a critical landmine in Cannes.

Tom Cruise made his grand return to the Croisette for the glitzy world premiere of the latest instalment in the long-running spy franchise.

There were fireworks (literally), standing ovations (briefly), and a whole lot of stunts (obviously). Returning alongside Cruise are franchise regulars Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell – with a few new faces thrown into the espionage soup.

But some early reviews have been less champagne-popping and more Molotov-cocktail-flinging.

Still, even as critics admit that much of the film is a slog, they’re quick to say it’s still worth the price of admission to see Cruise, 63, do his craziest stunts yet.

As a result, the film has an impressive 86% average score from 99 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes – even though many of those reviews don’t just critique the film, they outright insult it.

So how, exactly, could the action blockbuster get it so right and so wrong all at once?

Metro‘s own Tori Brazier perhaps summed it up best, writing: ‘I want to like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning more than I do.’

She continued, explaining that the film took itself so seriously at points it couldn’t help but come across as hacky: ‘Sometimes the dialogue – always taking a second seat to the stunts, as freely admitted by tight-knit collaborators McQuarrie and Cruise – is so basic, clunky and on the nose that it’s funny by accident.’

The Daily Mail’s review of the film – headlined ‘Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is 3 hours of nonsense that will make you wish for the world to end’ – features failed-marriage levels of resentment for Cruise’s self-serious action hero.

Brian Viner writes: ‘The film drags terribly in parts, and could lose half an hour just by cutting most of the lines telling us, in about 100 different ways, that the planet stands on the edge of a precipice. By the end, you might be wishing it would just fall off it.’

Directed once again by Christopher McQuarrie, the film promises more globe-trotting espionage and enough explosions to heat a small country – but according to many critics, it’s the concept itself that may have finally run out of steam.

One thing seemingly everyone can agree on is that the first half drags on, with scene after scene in which everyone and their mother congratulates Ethan Hunt for all his world-saving prowess. Many viewed this as a thinly veiled victory lap for Cruise himself.

Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri was exhausted by how much of the film was self-congratulatory, writing: ‘It’s dispiriting to find so much of this new film suffering from Solemnity Overload, as Final Reckoning’s first hour drowns us in dumb, endless litanies about the many achievements and transgressions of Ethan Hunt.’

But others felt that Cruise – and by proxy Ethan Hunt – deserved to revel in their own glory for as long as they wanted.

Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, for example, writes that Cruise, ‘does something you may not expect. He tops himself in the most outrageous way. He literally flies beyond all the stunts he’s done before, leaving us in an exhilarated state of awe.’

While he admits ‘There are moments when The Final Reckoning is preposterous,’ he also concludes that it ‘will prove to be one of the must-see movies of the summer.’

Some critics assert that the film deserved its massive budget, which is rumoured to have ballooned past £300million.

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gave it five stars and called it ‘wildly entertaining,’ but even if he admitted it was slow and bombastic at times.

Philip De Semlyen wrote for Time Out that, ‘If you’re looking for flaws, The Final Reckoning definitely has them. But with action sequences this adrenalised, no one is leaving short-changed.’

This sequel follows the cliffhanger ending of Dead Reckoning – which had fans eager for resolution. But for many reviewers, the payoff didn’t quite match the promise, though we won’t spoil anything here.

So what conclusion can the review-reader draw from all this conflicting information? Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is not a good movie, but it is an entertaining one.

As a result, audiences are sure to show up in force when the film hits cinemas worldwide, so Paramount (and Tom Cruise) may yet have the last laugh.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits UK cinemas on May 21, with previews from May 19

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