Director: J.J. Abrams
Cast: Tom Cruise, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Keri Russell, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup
Country: United States
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 125 minutes
Now is the perfect time to revisit J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III because there is both a new J.J. Abrams film (something called Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and a new Mission: Impossible film coming out in the same year. All of the lense flare and exciting action that Abrams has become known for started right here with the third installment of Mission: Impossible. Abrams has quickly become one of the most well known names in Hollywood for his many producing credits on projects like Cloverfield and Lost and his dual Star Trek films. For those who are curious, I absolutely love his Star Trek reboot from 2009 and consider it to be one of the best reboots ever made and one of the great contemporary science fiction films. The sequel, not so much, but that's besides the point. Therefore, let us see where the origins of Abrams' Hollywood takeover began with Mission: Impossible III!
Even though M:i:II was a huge commercial success, Paramount could not have churned out a worse entry for the franchise. M:i:II is a dumb as nails action film that took all of the spy and heist tactics out of what started as a spy franchise. Therefore, maybe it was for the best that Paramount took a six year hiatus with the series and took their time with the next sequel. What they delivered was M:i:III, Abrams' directorial debut and a darn good entry in the series. M:i:III combined the memorable spy tactics from the first entry and the shoot 'em up action from the second entry in order to deliver a crowd pleasing action blockbuster that provided something for everyone. M:i:III is quite possibly one of the best representations of a Hollywood blockbuster. The film moves at a swift pace, delivers several exciting action scenes, gives the audience a little romance to swoon over, tosses a few laughs in for good measure, provides us with a chilling villain to hate, maybe has a twist or two, and never takes any risks for good or for bad. If aliens ever came to our planet and asked what a Hollywood blockbuster was, I would show them M:i:III.
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| The distinctive Abrams style started here. |
M:i:III starts with the best opening scene in the entire series. Seriously, it'll be tough to ever top the greatness found in the first four minutes. Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) awakes chained to a chair with his new wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) tied up in front of him. Owen Damian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) stands in front of Ethan with a gun to his wife's head. He repeatedly asks Ethan to tell him the location of the "rabbit's foot" or else he will shoot his wife by the count of 10. What follows is a nail biting and tense opener that shows Tom Cruise in one of his most vulnerable moments. And than...bang!
We than flash back to the past to figure out how Ethan got into this mess. Ethan is no longer on active field duty because he is now married. However, when IMF contacts Ethan and tells him that an agent he once trained has been captured, he decides to go back into active field duty in order to save her. Even though Ethan finds himself reunited with his old friend Luther (Ving Rhames), he quickly learns that active field duty and a wife don't mix well. What follows is two hours of action, suspense, and villainy as Ethan goes up against the cold hearted Owen Damian, his most formidable foe yet.
One of M:i:III's strongest elements is its believable relationship between Ethan and Julia. While the first installment lacked any romance, M:i:II based its entire plot around the sexual tension between Ethan and Thandie Newton's Naya. However, the romance was so forced and heavy handed that no viewer believed the two's love for one other. Therefore, Abrams wisely scrapped the Naya character from the franchise altogether and gave Ethan a believable wife that humanizes him. This relationship dynamic also helps audiences connect with the film better. I could easily see my girlfriend, someone who doesn't care for action films, connecting with this film because of this. Abrams and fellow screenwriters Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman did a great job showing what happens to Ethan when he tries to hide his job from his wife. Therefore, Ethan finds himself more vulnerable than ever before in this installment because his desire for an everyday relationship puts both his job and wife in jeopardy. If Ethan was an unstoppable action hero in M:i:II, than he is a relatable and human action hero here.
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| Is it too early for Phillip Seymour Hoffman jokes? |
M:i:III features not only a better love interest, but also a far superior villain. Dougray Scott's villainous performance from M:i:II was so bad that he bordered on self parody. Therefore, Abrams went in the exact opposite direction with his Mission villain by directing the great Phillip Seymour Hoffman to play the villain as straight and cold as possible. Hoffman's Damian is a cruel villain who makes a big impact with surprisingly little screen time. It's a shame to see Damian only survive one Mission installment, because he truly makes for Ethan's greatest foe yet. The supporting cast is leaps and bounds better than M:i:II's as well. Rhames does great work as always as Luther, his respective franchise character. We are also introduced to yet another head of IMF, this time played by Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix). I don't know what is up with IMF and their leaders, but they consistently change from picture to picture. We also get good turns by Maqqie Q (Live Free or Die Hard), Johnathan Rhys Myers (From Paris With Love), Keri Russell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Billy Crudup (Watchmen), and the always amazing Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz).
As I stated previously, M:i:III's action scenes are nowhere near as excellent as the ones in M:i:II. One of my biggest issues with Abrams' eye for action is that he allows the camera to shake far too often. In most of the film's action scenes, the shot repeatedly shakes and is far too often a close up than a medium shot. This close up shakey cam style renders some of the action incomprehensible and deprives the film of the gracefulness that Woo showcased so brilliantly. Say what you want about M:i:II, but Woo directed the hell out of that film's action sequences. On the bright side though, M:i:III does contain a few solid and comprehensible set pieces. The best set piece in the film is the bridge attack that occurs exactly in the middle of the film's runtime. This scene is made all the better because it is set atop a bridge over water, thereby rendering escape impossible for our characters. Also, you just have to love the shot in which a missile blows up a car behind Tom Cruise and tosses him through the air into a car next to him. Great stuff.
M:i:III is yet another film that proves why Tom Cruise is the king of on screen running. I don't know what it is, but few actors can run as well as Cruise does. Cruise is so tense and believable while in a jog that I would love to watch a film where Cruise plays a marathon runner for goodness sakes. M:i:I and M:i:II also contain great Tom Cruise running moments. However, M:i:III takes the running cake as it is filled to the brim with sprinting sequences in which Cruise runs his heart out. I also have to mention that M:i:III marks a trend of the franchise in which Tom Cruise's hair length alternates with each film. His hair is short in the first film, long in the second, short in the third, and long in the fourth. I hope that Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise keep this tradition running with M:i:V because I prefer Cruise's hair short and not long, it makes him look younger. Plus it's just fun to spot an alternating trend in a franchise and see it play out over 20 years of movies.
M:i:II nearly killed the franchise despite its massive box office intake, plain and simple. It was a dumb and stupid actioner that took all of the character out of Ethan Hunt and provided us with next to no genuine suspense. However, Abrams found a way to bring the series back to its glory by fusing the best elements of both M:i:I and M:i:II together into one cohesive entry. Mission: Impossible III is a darn good summer blockbuster that takes no major risks and commits no major offenses. Even though I complained about the film's shaky cam issues, the rest of the film's strengths out weigh these mere moments of queasy cam syndrome. Interestingly enough, this entry is the lowest grossing of the franchise. It's crazy to think that more people saw John Woo's dove fest than this superior thriller. However, it was M:i:III that set the franchise back on its feet and on the path towards Ghost Protocol greatness. My hat goes off to Abrams and friends for making a darn good action film that holds up even a decade later.
M:i:III is yet another film that proves why Tom Cruise is the king of on screen running. I don't know what it is, but few actors can run as well as Cruise does. Cruise is so tense and believable while in a jog that I would love to watch a film where Cruise plays a marathon runner for goodness sakes. M:i:I and M:i:II also contain great Tom Cruise running moments. However, M:i:III takes the running cake as it is filled to the brim with sprinting sequences in which Cruise runs his heart out. I also have to mention that M:i:III marks a trend of the franchise in which Tom Cruise's hair length alternates with each film. His hair is short in the first film, long in the second, short in the third, and long in the fourth. I hope that Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise keep this tradition running with M:i:V because I prefer Cruise's hair short and not long, it makes him look younger. Plus it's just fun to spot an alternating trend in a franchise and see it play out over 20 years of movies.
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| M:i:III, the revival of the series. |
M:i:II nearly killed the franchise despite its massive box office intake, plain and simple. It was a dumb and stupid actioner that took all of the character out of Ethan Hunt and provided us with next to no genuine suspense. However, Abrams found a way to bring the series back to its glory by fusing the best elements of both M:i:I and M:i:II together into one cohesive entry. Mission: Impossible III is a darn good summer blockbuster that takes no major risks and commits no major offenses. Even though I complained about the film's shaky cam issues, the rest of the film's strengths out weigh these mere moments of queasy cam syndrome. Interestingly enough, this entry is the lowest grossing of the franchise. It's crazy to think that more people saw John Woo's dove fest than this superior thriller. However, it was M:i:III that set the franchise back on its feet and on the path towards Ghost Protocol greatness. My hat goes off to Abrams and friends for making a darn good action film that holds up even a decade later.
Rating: 8/10 - A fast paced and entertaining summer blockbuster that fuses the best elements of both M:i:I and M:i:II.
Franchise:
Mission: Impossible (1996, dir. Brian De Palma)
Mission: Impossible II (2000, dir. John Woo)
Mission: Impossible III (2006, dir. J.J. Abrams)
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011, dir. Brad Bird)
Mission: Impossible V (2015, dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
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