Review of Mission: Impossible III (2006) by Victor T — 31 Jul 2015

It has been six years since the last installment of this franchise but now Ethan Hunt has more competition: Jason Bourne, Sydney Bristow, Jack Bauer, and a brand new 007. Is Ethan Hunt still relevant in the spy genre?

A retired Ethan Hunt is needed in the field again to recover a MacGuffin known as "The Rabbit´s Foot" with a team consisting of Marsellus Wallace, Nikita and a nobody.

First we had a New Hollywood director with Brian De Palma and an Asian stylish director with John Woo, but now the franchise is in the hands of a new director known for creating some popular TV shows and writing some bad 90´s films, but I have to say that the final product injected new life to the franchise. "MI3" counts with serviceable acting with the highlight being the always reliable Philip Seymour Hoffman who is undeniably the best villain of the entire franchise (at least at the time this review was written), J.J´s fast paced and over edited directing works within the spy genre, it has a pretty intense opening, the most simplistic and straightforward script of the franchise so far (which is surprising considering the fact Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci wrote it), the action sequences are over edited and film with shaky cam but they still managed to be fun to watch, Tom Cruise delivers an actually credible performance, it takes advantage of its locations, and the entertainment value is big. But like every "MI" this third installment suffers from the same problems: It wastes actors in forgettable roles, the plot twists are predictable, it is again a love story, ridiculous dialog, an annoying score (not counting the iconic theme), one dimensional characters, it's all about Cruise so the rest of the team are left in the background, and a lackluster finale.

"Mission Impossible III" is an improvement in the franchise but it is a generic, forgettable, and mindless blockbuster (But then again, that's the definition of this whole franchise) that feels more like Abrams´ "Alias" with a MI paintjob. Compared to other spy films, this is at the bottom of the barrel.