Final Reckoning’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Lowest for Mission: Impossible in 19 Years

The first wave of reviews for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning are in, and while critics seem to be enjoying the latest installment in the long-running action franchise, the response is not as enthusiastic as the past few entries. As of this writing, The Final Reckoning has a critics score of 88% with 85 reviews submitted. It goes without saying that figure isn’t anything to sneeze at (it’s well within range of being considered Certified Fresh), but The Final Reckoning is seen as a step down from its predecessors. The 87% score is the lowest in the franchise since 2006’s Mission: Impossible III (71%).

Beginning with 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the series enjoyed a run of Rotten Tomatoes scores of 94% or better. Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the high point for the franchise with 98%. While a critics’ consensus for The Final Reckoning is not available yet, a scan of the reviews published so far indicate people love the high-octane action set pieces, but feel the storytelling is a step down from previous installments. Some pointed out the film gets bogged down in exposition. Even the positive reviews mention it isn’t the rousing conclusion some hoped for.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is set to open over Memorial Day weekend, where it and Lilo & Stitch should lead a record-breaking holiday frame at the box office. It’s expected The Final Reckoning will gross around $80 million domestically over its first four days. Distributor Paramount is hoping it rebounds from the underwhelming box office performance of Dead Reckoning, which earned $571.1 million worldwide.

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The marketing campaign for The Final Reckoning has billed the film essentially as Mission: Impossible’s Avengers: Endgame. Trailers have emphasized connections and callbacks to earlier entries, and director Christopher McQuarrie has mentioned The Final Reckoning serves as a culmination for three decades of storytelling. Star Tom Cruise remains coy on whether or not there will be another sequel after this.

That an 88% is Mission: Impossible’s lowest score in nearly two decades is indicative of the franchise’s quality over that time. The series settled into a groove during the 2010s, and it would be hard for any property to maintain that momentum. Mission: Impossible – Fallout in particular is considered one of the greatest action films ever made, and once that bar is reached, there really isn’t anywhere to go but down. While some fans might be disappointed The Final Reckoning doesn’t eclipse the heights of some of its more acclaimed predecessors, it still delivers the high-stakes entertainment audiences have come to expect from the franchise. Ending chapters can be tricky to pull off; it sounds like The Final Reckoning bites off a bit more than it can chew in the narrative department, though it’s still a respectable conclusion.

It is important to keep in mind that the Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Rotten Tomatoes score could fluctuate over the next week or so. The previous two installments saw over 400 reviews submitted, so just a fraction have been counted here. Still, the figure is unlikely to change too drastically in one direction or the other. The first reviews are typically indicative of where the consensus will land. Unless there’s a surge of extremely high marks, The Final Reckoning will have to settle for being a good, not great, Mission: Impossible film. Still, the response should be positive enough to get action fans to the theater Memorial Day.