MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING; IS THIS MOVIE THE FINAL DEATH KNELL OF THE 20TH CENTURY BIG BUDGET ACTION FILM?

Over this past week, my family and I went to see Tom Cruise’s latest big budget spectacle, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING which is Part 2 of the finale of the series that started with last year’s DEAD RECKONING. Totaling almost six hours of non-stop action content, the movie is the encyclopedic definition of the word SPECTACLE. My review for this film will be very simple and is not going to be the focus of this blog. Both films are fun with amazing action sequences done by stunt doubles (And in some cases, Cruise himself), has a very minimal story that allows the actors to move from one location to another, and is a grand finale to a movie franchise that dates all the way back to the mid-90s. But watching this movie made me realize something. With Marvel and DC movies effectively taking over the action genre with studio-controlled franchises stuck inside defined comic book universes, is the big budget action film dead? And keeping this in mind, is the future of action low-budget films going to be small scope but entertaining pictures like NOBODY with Bob Odenkirk which is now also being franchised and getting its own sequel?

Ask yourself a question.

When was the last time you went to a movie theater and were inspired or blown away by something you saw?

What happened to the 1970s/1980s political pictures that often focused on the downsides of the changing United States (NETWORK and SERPICO) as well as historical documents about a recent era (GANDHI, THE KILLING FIELDS, THE LAST EMPEROR and EMPIRE OF THE SUN) in human history?
When was the last time we had a comedy star in the Jim Carrey mold? When was the last time you went to a theater to see a comedy film?

What happened to science fiction films with inventive ideas like DARK CITY or CUBE? Did superhero movies kill these films and turn the genre into nothing but franchises like ALIEN?

There are a couple of reasons.

First, the streaming services have effectively taken over content creation and distribution which has forced the big budget studios to take less risks. This risk-free mindset has led to half as many films being greenlit and released since the last Golden Age of film in the mid to late 90s.

Second, limited series and well-written television shows have effectively taken over the entertainment industry since BREAKING BAD and MAD MEN broke through in the late 2000s. This content which took over the 2010s with Marvel films will be remembered as a second television Golden Age. Even our old action stars like Harrison Ford would move onto television with shows like 1923 and SHRINKING as well as Sylvester Stallone in his very underrated Paramount Show TULSA KING. But this content was expensive and the streaming services that produced much of this content created it as a lure to buy their subscriptions and produced it at a loss. Now, the industry is beginning to adjust by reducing much of this content. Plus, many well produced shows from Europe and Asia (South Korea specifically) have counterbalanced the decline in American productions. Streaming services are truly global.

So, these reasons above are why this latest big budget action film fills me with nostalgia. As a 50-year-old male, I grew up with a Hollywood that would save all their action spectacles for every summer. Movies starring Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis and to a lesser B movie extent, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan, Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris were also ever present in movie theaters every summer during my childhood and college years. The three films that made me realize that these big budget action films are fading into history besides this in-theater Tom Cruise movie are:

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY

RAMBO: LAST BLOOD

And THE EXPENDABLES franchise, which is a riff on an era that has long since passed. Watching both films and the above-mentioned franchise felt like saying goodbye to a family member with terminal cancer. When compared to films from the 80s and 90s, these movies are still made with the same high-quality commitment to action that all these other 20th Century films were. It just appears that our culture has moved onto other things and is no longer committed to giving their hard-earned money for a brainless and fun two-hour entertainment experience.
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RIP ACTION FILMS!