Review of Mission: Impossible III (2006) by Derick K — 24 Jul 2018

"M:3" was exactly what the franchise needed after the debacle that was "M:2". It may not have been good as the sequel "Ghost Protocol" but it laid the foundations for what the later sequels would be; high octane action with incredible stuntwork performed no less than by Tom Cruise himself.

In this film, Ethan Hunt is in semi-retirement training new recruits while getting ready to marry his girlfriend Julian (Michelle Monaghan).  At a party, Ethan receives a message from an old friend sending him on a rescue mission to retrieve one of his recruits from a ruthess arms dealer Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) leading to information about a mysterious object codenamed "The Rabbit's Foot".

J. J. Abrams who would later direct the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" makes his debut film here. Abrams was a good choice since his fast-paced style coupled with great action scenes and a more personal, heartfelt story helped to reboot the franchise and take it in a new direction. All the action scenes are great in that roller coaster style of way and everything is well choreographed as always.

Tom Cruise is great as always in his action scenes performing his own stuntwork. I don't know how that guy does it without being the least bit nervous. Here he drops his James Bond esque persona from the last film and more or less returns to the character from the first film. This time we get to see a more vulnerable side to Ethan Hunt which makes the character feel more human. Ving Rhames returns as Luther Stickell and he is much more prominent here than he was in the last film. Some of the great parts involve his comradarie with Ethan where they discuss Ethan's relationship with Julia while in the middle of a mission. Cruise and Rhames really sell that these two have been friends for quite a long time and they almost sound like old drinking buddies. Michelle Monaghan is good as Ethan's girlfriend and she shares much better chemistry here than the last girl did in the previous film. The rest of Ethan's team is underdeveloped but we get a small glimpse of what these people are like and that would be something improved upon in the later sequels. The film introduces Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) who is a hacker type of character that would play a larger role in the sequels. Benji is a great character that adds a sense of humor to the series and Pegg does a great job at selling the character. Finally, we have the late Philip Seymour Hoffman as the main villain Owen Davian. On paper, Davian is a typical, generic movie villain but Hoffman does a great job at turning this character into one of the more memorable villains of the series by adding ruthlessness and a cold menace.

The film however isn't without flaws, mostly in plot. SPOILER ALERT: This is the third film in a row that uses the "IMF agent as the bad guy" twist and it's getting tired at this point. Plus it's making the IMF look incompetent, because this super secret organization can't seem to do proper screening and background checks to make sure their people aren't traitorous. It's predictable who the traitor is but I won't tell. It feels like even though the franchise was starting to go in a new direction it was almost like the writers couldn't come up with anything more original. This was what brought the film down a bit for me.

Despite the lack of originality and an overused plot twist, "MI:3" is still a fun summer blockbuster and an improvement over "MI:2". Things would only get better from this point on rather than getting worse like it usually does with long running movie franchises.