Thank you for this incredibly thoughtful write-up! When I first watched MI 8 I left the theater not quite sure how to interpret what I had seen. After thinking about it a while I realized that the movie was a comment on movie-making within the MI franchise but even beyond that and you've made all those points so clearly and nicely here, which I really appreciate. When I went back to see it a second time I really loved the film and had a blast watching it, but it took seeing it a second time for me to be able to have an open mind to a slightly different style of MI movie and also to really appreciate and enjoy the "final chapter" feel of one long, epic story.