Review of Mission: Impossible III (2006) by Jake T — 09 Aug 2015

The opening sequence for this film is my favorite of the series. It throws you into the story out of chronology like some of my favorite films (Pulp Fiction, Inception, The Prestige) and it is very tense even though we don't know the exact context of the situation. It sets a standard for the rest of the movie to live up to, and it does so at least as far as the character of Ethan Hunt is concerned.

After this tense opening, we get a feel for Ethan's personal life as he has left IMF for the time being to live with his fiancée. He clearly has retained some skills as he can lip read a conversation which concerns him between some females at what I assume to be a wedding shower. This isn't really an effective way to show he misses his work, but what do you know, during this shower he receives a call and meets up with his superior in a convenience store. His mission calls for him to rescue a female spy whom he mentored, and when he fails he sets his priorities straight - Hunt spontaneously marries his fiancée and wishes to protect her.

Once we get into the main plot of the film, there is a focus around the Philip Seymour Hoffman villain, and Hunt and his crew kidnap him in a sequence which illustrates how the mask-making works - exciting! What's awesome yet a little strange about this villain is he takes this threat to him extremely personally. Instead of talking at all about the Macguffin referred to as the Rabbit's Foot, Hoffman's character calmly asks Hunt if he has a wife or girlfriend and threatens to kill him in front of her if he ever gets the chance. This pushes Hunt to a near breaking point, but we never get a clear explanation why this is so personal to the Hoffman character. Either way, it ups the stakes for Hunt as the villain is eventually able to track down Hunt's wife and uses her as a hostage to get Hunt to obtain the Rabbit's Foot for him.

It is clear in this film that the Macguffin is the Macguffin - a plot device which drives the movie but has little importance - as we focus more on whether Hunt will be able to save his wife/himself in the end or not. This makes Mission: Impossible III a better movie than its predecessors as we are more invested in the characters as Hunt is more emotionally invested in the mission this time around.

As an action movie, however, this film is just a little bit of a letdown - there are about 3 elaborate action sequences spread throughout the movie that are brief and only somewhat exciting. The climactic sequence of the movie is a good showdown between Hunt and the villain, but is not as climactic as it could be, taking place in a village of small buildings without the opportunity for cool tactics to be used, but as I said, this movie is more about Hunt's struggle to protect his wife, making up for this lack of great action which this series is all about.