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From the iconic vent drop, to the now unbelievable stunts in this final film, it is the end of an era. Looking back on the series, the things you remember are the adrenaline high stake stunts the movie title is named after.

In the Final Reckoning, two memorable setpieces will remain with me. One, the entire submarine sequence, and two, the final aerial sequence. You've seen Tom Cruise hang on planes. Well, get ready to see Tom Cruise explore that concept a lot more with biplanes. Tom is always pushing the limit of how far stunts can go while looking completely believable and I really have no idea how they were able to film this.

The plot is nothing new and I doubt anybody came for character development either. We came for the set pieces, and boy did these stunts deliver. Yeah, there were a lot of explanations and expositions but honestly a movie needs some slow and dull moments to really emphasize the stunts in between. Most action films are like this and the final film didn't stray far from the formula.

I will say though, other than the two set pieces, fight scenes are scarce and unmemorable. We can see the age of Tom coming in as one scene was outright off-screened. Not a big deal, but I definitely enjoyed Fallout and Dead Reckoning more because of that.

This may be the last hurrah with Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible franchise, but I remain hopeful and curious to see how far and/or advanced set pieces can truly get.

2024 was a tough year for Hollywood if this movie managed to win Best Picture. Don't get me wrong, I didn't think the movie was bad, the acting was quite good, it just wasn't good enough. For a while I thought this movie would turn into something else, because it was setting it up just like Parasite. What you end up getting ultimately is a comedy. Not a black comedy, or a satire, it's just a normal comedy. At some point, you realize there is no threat or danger to any characters even though it looked like something is going to go wrong. And I think, ultimately, that will sway the entertainment value for many viewers, including me. I think the movie had potential to become something wild, but it ended up being tame and lackluster. Still, the movie does a good job of making you wonder what's going to happen next.

From what I've read, it looks like the intent was for Anora to be some kind of modern cautionary fairy tale. And I kind of see that? A poor girl end up being chosen by a rich oligarch "prince" and it's happily ever after from there. There's just no umph to it. We expect there to be another layer to the madness, but there wasn't. I guess one can claim the story is "realistic" because we are shown what these characters are all about. The rich oligarch prince is a spoiled brat who never had to work hard in his life. The poor girl is an obnoxious loud mouth because apparently nobody had ever been kind to her in her life. (Yeah you can argue Anora at least changes a little bit in the story, but really without the last 2 minutes of the film you would not be able to make that conclusion at all.) The silent warrior is kind and loves his grandma. So on and so forth.

Now I'm not saying the movie needed to be a thriller or have a plot twist to be great, it just felt like the idea was dangled to the viewers and the execution never pulled through. There doesn't seem to be a main message the writer is trying to get across either. You might say, don't judge a book by its cover, but the rich oligarchs end up exactly like what the cover showed. You might say, Anora learned about kindness for the first time and reciprocated in her own way, and I'd say, without the gift given at the end, which ultimately goes back to materialism, I doubt the main character would reciprocate the kindness at all.

Ultimately, the movie feels shallow. It brushes with a broad stroke that oligarchs are cartoonishly incompetent, or greedy, or what have you. It tries to give some depth to sex workers but they still acted pretty much what you expect a stereotypical sex worker to act like. The movie is at times funny, but at some point the obnoxious behaviour of all its characters really takes that away. And I think that's a big problem. You might like that the characters are all obnoxious in their own way, but we generally like to root for someone in whatever story we're watching. But when all of them are borderline insufferable, you end up not caring for any of them. I mean, I guess Igor is cool. And the film tried really hard to paint Igor cool. I didn't mind this, since it did feel like the main message was about reciprocating kindness in a ludicrous situation. Still, we have already seen films that go a step beyond this. Parasite is a perfect example of this, and I hate to write a review just to recommend another movie, but if you've seen Parasite, I think it's impossible not to feel at least a bit disappointed about Anora.

In an age of oversaturated superhero movies and unnecessary live action adaptations of cartoons, it's refreshing to see a comeback of high fantasy fairy tales that uses mostly practical effects. The presentation in Wicked is absolutely stunning. From the architecture, the costumes, the color palettes, the animals, the setpieces, to even the way the characters move, there is an extreme attention to detail that sells you this vibrant and magnificent world. It really reminded me of the early 2000s where we had several outstanding fantasy series like Harry Potter, LOTR, and Pirates.

And yes, this is a musical about two girls with a prince charming so I can relate if you're not a fan (as I have avoided musicals myself since I was first exposed to them as a child). That said, I think just the sheer beauty of its design and worldbuilding is warrant a viewing. I very much respect the dedication toward practical designs over lazy CGI renderings. Obviously there is still CGI but it doesn't look glaringly obvious like a green screen was behind the characters at all times. Some of its set designs like the forested areas, Emerald City, and the School were all crafted with care.

The songs were a delight to listen to. I would imagine Ariana will pull a ton of viewers alone with her presence and she was pretty good in the film. It is tough to judge acting in a musical as it just feels like a collection of music videos but there was not a time where I thought the acting was bad.

Overall, the film was a magical experience and I am very much looking forward to the sequel!