Review: Mission Impossible III

Currently training newbie agents, retired Impossible Mission agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) swings back into action when a friend and protégé (Keri Russell) is captured and killed by evil arms dealer Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who is looking for a MacGuffin called a ‘rabbit’s foot’. And this guy will do anything to get it, which does not bode well for Hunt’s new squeeze, Michelle Monaghan, who knows nothing about his top-secret job. Ving Rhames is back as Hunt’s buddy/right-hand man Luther (getting more screen time here, lecturing Hunt on the impossibility of mixing secret mission work with a stable family life), who is now accompanied by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and the foxy Maggie Q, bringing things back to where they began in the first film where Hunt had a whole team, he went it alone for most of the second film. Simon Pegg plays the film’s answer to Q branch, whilst Billy Crudup (quite good) is Cruise’s IMF friend who sends him after Russell, Laurence Fishburne (getting nothing to do, but doing it imposingly and intensely as always) is the IMF head honcho.

Formerly a presence behind the scenes on TV’s “Alias” and “Lost”, J.J. Abrams managed to translate his skills to the big screen for this 2006 film, which turned the ludicrous franchise towards a much better direction. Previous director John Woo went in showy, self-indulgent direction, whilst Abrams pretty much gets the action/character/story balance closer to right than Woo or Brian De Palma in the rather boring first film. It’s not a small and intimate film at all, and yes there’s plenty of action, but it’s far less self-indulgent. The subsequent films have managed to combine the two filmmaking approaches to create even better films (that are showy, but not from a directorial sense), but I think Abrams deserves credit for stopping the nonsense before the rot completely set in. I’m all for action and spectacle, that’s why I love “Ghost Protocol”, but not if it’s just so the director can show how cool he is. It’s got to serve the film and story. That’s what “Ghost Protocol” and “Rogue Nation” provided, and it’s what Abrams does here, too. It may not be as elaborately and epically staged as the other films, but the film is definitely still action-packed. In other words, there’s no ‘guys holding two guns while flames and doves burst through every door while the director ejaculates all over the screen due to his absolute awesomeness’. The action works for the film and story being told rather than just being cool.

I don’t generally like films that start with a scene out of place in the narrative, but starting with a scene from the middle here does serve the purpose of giving us our first glimpse of villain Philip Seymour Hoffman. His is a remarkably effective display of straight-up matter-of-fact, cold-blooded ruthlessness. So chilling, Hoffman’s Davian will hurt and kill as easy as breathing or blinking. He doesn’t care, he has but one singular focus. What I love is that the character comes with no frills. He’s not a Bond villain. This guy’s a bad guy because he is and that’s all there is to it. He does bad things because he can and will. Basically, he’s a total piece of shit. Tom Cruise, for his part gives his best performance of the entire series. The screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and Abrams (all of whom are “Alias” alumni) does provide the film’s biggest flaw: A choppy narrative. Everything else is pretty much a hit here, though so it’s a forgivable, if noticeable sin because the writers manage to provide some heart and humanity here as well. Ethan Hunt is struggling with the whole work/life balance here, providing Cruise with the opportunity to do some real acting here in addition to running and jumping off stuff.

Outside of Hoffman and Cruise, the cast are pretty good here with Simon Pegg quite fun, and Ving Rhames getting more to do than in any film I’ve seen him in since. It’s also probably the best use of Maggie Q to date. Yeah, I could’ve done without “Felicity” (Keri Russell looks like a try-hard next to Maggie Q), but Billy Crudup is rock-solid, Jonathan Rhys Meyers does his best big-screen work to date, and Laurence Fishburne (who is way shorter than I had thought) commands attention as the kind of boss you simply allow to dress you down, lest you piss him off even more. I also think Michelle Monaghan at the very least has pretty good chemistry with Cruise, so it’s a shame their relationship is played out in rushed and choppy fashion. It still works, but only because of their performances and chemistry.

Due to a choppy narrative the film suffers a bit from a lack of rhythm/cohestion, however the action entertains as do the excellent performances by Cruise and Hoffman, and a story with a bit of humanity. Solid stuff, and a massive improvement over the laughable “Mi2”.

Rating: B-