The Rotten Tomatoes score for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has been revealed. Picking up from the cliffhanger ending of the seventh installment, which sees Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and team chasing a foe and a rogue A.I. “The Enтιтy,” the new movie, which will arrive in theaters on May 23, finds him in a precarious position, being targeted by government authorities.

Now, the first reviews of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning are in, with the movie debuting at 88% critics’ approval on Rotten Tomatoes from 74 reviews, placing the movie in the middle in comparison to the rest of the franchise. Widely considered the franchise’s last entry, critics have praised Cruise’s stunts and the edge-of-your-seat plot, but some expressed mixed feelings towards the odd balance between nostalgia and the lack of closure.

What This Means For Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Mission: Impossible 8 Is Great But Not Everyone’s Favorite

The new film’s Rotten Tomatoes score suggests that the film is generally well-received among critics, but it falls a little short compared to тιтles released in more recent years. It seems that the new movie is far from being the Mission: Impossible franchise’s strongest. In fact, the film’s debut score places it in fifth place, below Mission: Impossible 4‘s 94% critical approval rate and above Mission: Impossible III‘s 71% score. Check out the chart below:

While USA Today argues that viewers couldn’t ask for a better sendoff if it was indeed the last, Wall Street Journal‘s review points out a jarring flaw in Ethan Hunt’s character design in the potentially last Mission: Impossible film, stressing that the installment misplaced Cruise’s character as a “messiah” instead of a “maverick.” Vanity Fair‘s review doesn’t deny the film’s greatness but admits that the new entry can’t compete with the franchise’s peak.

Our Take On Mission: Impossible 8’s Reception

It’s Partially Biased Due To Unclear Expectations

ScreenRant‘s review highlights Mission: Impossible 8 as the most emotional in the franchise, despite not being the best. It sounds like the film may have been sending mixed signals to critics, who had anticipated the film to be the last one, but at the same time, can’t be so sure. Multiple reviews were written from the angle of the eighth installment being a sendoff, which would then see the critics pondering the lack of closure. Some made note of its attempt to leave the door open for Ethan’s return, should there be another movie.

It looks like Mission: Impossible 8‘s critical reception may have suffered from uncertainty. On top of that, Fallout and ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning are both tough acts to follow, but for those who want to see Cruise jump off a plane for presumably one last time, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is not to be missed.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Vanity Fair