If Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning really is as final as its title implies, I can perhaps forgive the film for including so very many flashback images from the franchise's previous seven installments, including images that are regurgitated two or three times over. But if this is indeed the series' end – I mean, y'know … we'll see … – I'm still not sure I can forgive director/co-writer Christopher McQuarrie's latest for being so dully protracted and humorless, or for the decision to transform super-operative Hunt, and by extension Tom Cruise, into a veritable messiah.

In this horror comedy, at least a dozen wannabe killers dress as a small town's costumed mascot Frendo, and while it would be nice to report that this circus freak resembles Javier Bardem's Anton Chiguhr, he's really just a low-rent Pennywise. It would be nicer to report that the movie was even the least bit scary, yet given the genre and my personal expectations, I happily settled for funny.

Is it possible that, over the past three years, Marvel Studios has been experimenting with a release strategy designed to get audiences excited for every other MCU movie?

There's no point in burying the lede on this. Even though it's only April, I can't imagine seeing a more dazzling, thrilling, thunderously satisfying 2025 release than Ryan Coogler's Sinners.