Review of Mission: Impossible III (2006) by Halfwelshman — 22 Jan 2012

Mission: Impossible III is always competent, and is considerably better than M:I-2 but lacks the excitement and consistency of the first film. The action is generally well handled, but ranges from jaw-dropping set-pieces (the scene where the IMF team frantically try to bring down a lethal military drone on a rapidly disintegrating bridge), to the ridiculous (Ethan Hunt BASE jumping from halfway down a Shanghai skyscraper) to the uncreative and dull (the opening hostage rescue in a guarded warehouse).

Concerning the actors, Tom Cruise still does what he needs to do, Ving Rhames is as entertaining as ever, and Philip Seymour Hoffman's makes a terrifically scary villain, but the vast majority of the rest of the cast tend to drift listlessly through the film.

Michelle Monaghan, despite being a key addition to the cast in theory (she does play Ethan Hunt's fiancee after all) feels more like a spare wheel, an unwelcome bit of emotional baggage that slows the pace of the story, Billy Crudup and Laurence Fishburne's characters are woefully underdeveloped, Maggie Q plays the same character she plays in every film, and Keri Russell and Eddie Marsan don't get enough screen time to make any impact whatsoever.

The film always looks good, and J. J. Abrams gets ample opportunity to flex his directorial muscles on the big screen for the first time, but the main disappointment of M:I--3 is the story. It's flimsy, unable to adequately support the plethora of action sequences let alone allow for any sort of character development.

Thankfully, the silly hyper-real facemasks don't play as key a role to the plot this time round, and it's kind of cool that we get to see how they're made, plus the filmmakers finally acknowledge the need for contact lenses and voice--changing software for an IMF agent to convincingly imitate their target (though it still doesn't explain how Cruise can believably pose as any other man considering his diminutive stature).

Mission: Impossible III looks good and has a few stand-out sequences and a great performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman to offer us, but the lazy story and the addition of an ill-defined romantic subplot detracts from the viewing experience as a whole, and some of the actors simply don't look like they're really trying.

J.J. Abram's film directorial debut is solidly O.K., but nothing more.