MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING Review: A Big, Beautiful, Messy, Thrilling, Heartfelt Goodbye

Whether you're ending a good relationship, quitting a job you enjoyed, or wrapping up an eight-film, thirty-year, four-billion-dollar film franchise, it's never easy saying goodbye.

The first Mission: Impossible movie hit theaters three decades ago, and the eighth film -- reportedly the last, if you choose to believe that -- is finally hitting the big screen. Whether it's truly done or not, Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning seems every bit like a goodbye from director Christopher McQuarrie and star/producer/unstoppable force, Tom Cruise. It's a bit messy and a little long-winded at first, but it's also a beautiful, thrilling swan song for one of the absolute greatest action franchises ever.

It's been two months since the previous film, Dead Reckoning, ended, and IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is at a crossroads. The artificial intelligence known as the Entity has spread its infection worldwide, insinuating itself into social media and government servers on a self-guided mission to corral humankind.

Its final hurdle sees it taking control of the world's nuclear arsenals, and Hunt is the only one standing in its way. He needs to stop the Entity, and he needs to prevent Gabriel (Esai Morales) and others from getting control of it -- and it's entirely possible he might not survive this mission.

Like Dead Reckoning, The Final Reckoning can feel like exactly what it is -- half a movie. The difference here is that the new film devotes its first hour to bringing viewers up to speed on the various story threads that are still in play. It's an exposition dump that lasts almost as long as some entire films, but while it's a bit clunky at times and can feel never-ending, it's also presented with style, engaging imagery, and a cast you really don't mind watching yammer on about Hunt's relationships, past missions, and inability to value one life less than millions.

It's an issue and can leave the film incredibly slow to truly come alive, but once it starts running, well, you know no one runs better than Cruise. He and McQuarrie give fans a lot to love in the film's back half, from fantastic and fun call backs to earlier films to emotional beats with long-time characters to two of the franchise's best set pieces.

The first standout is a sedate heist sequence (of sorts) that finds its own excitement in the tension, design, and structure of an underwater dive executed with minimal sound. The biplane sequence glimpsed in the marketing, meanwhile, is an all-timer that bathes viewers in breathtaking visuals while delivering real thrills and earning pure awe.

Both put Cruise front and center leaving no doubt that he's actually doing these things -- for his pleasure and ours -- and they serve as a reminder that he's one of the only major stars who consistently puts it all on screen for audiences. These big set pieces have been a franchise staple since Cruise scaled Dubai's Burj Khalifa in 2011's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and it's no small feat that Cruise has dialed them up once again.

The stunts are undeniably the big draw here, but fans of the franchise are also rewarded with character moments that find beats both humorous and humane. We've spent many hours (years?) with these characters and performers including Cruise, Ving Rhames, and Simon Pegg, and relatively newer faces are still warmly familiar (Angela Bassett, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham). There are laughs despite the end of the world scenario, and there's genuine emotion between friends that helps craft stakes we can grasp.

Hayley Atwell's Grace remains a problem -- to be clear, Atwell is a terrific actor, but the character continually feels like a square peg being jammed into a round hole. Grace simply feels out of place both narratively and tonally (and it's impossible to ignore Ilsa's absence, no matter how much the film would like us too).

Gabriel also suffers, as he did in the previous film, as a villain given an extraordinary amount of weight despite having only just arrived at the tail-end of a 30-year franchise. Morales, another great actor, just doesn't get the time to carry it. On the bright side, though, his exit is the most unforgettable of any of the franchise's antagonists. It is... incredibly entertaining.

Neither is enough to tank the film or the ride, though, as both are rightfully overshadowed by time spent with long-running characters, the visual beauty that McQuarrie and cinematographer Fraser Taggart create, and the building realization that this is the end. There's an emotional intensity in saying goodbye to characters (and franchises) we love, and while Mission: Impossible has been a bumpy one with highs and lows, its longevity and overall quality give additional power to this closing chapter.

The back half of The Final Reckoning, and really, much of the franchise as a whole, is movie magic uninterested in tricking viewers with effects and editing alone. This is a purer kind of magic, filmmaking that creates spectacle built on intricately crafted stunts, set pieces with scope, and action sequences that leave us spent and smiling.

It's very unlikely that we'll ever see this kind of combination again -- a willing and talented star, a filmmaker in sync with that drive, ambition, and desire to wow audiences, and a franchise that embraces the physical while others cower behind their zeroes and ones.

Unlikely, but hopefully not impossible.

The film opens today, only in movie theaters, via Paramount Pictures. Visit the official site for locations and showtimes.