A not so good start to the super spy series

Rating: 5/10 (2 August 2015)

Mission: Impossible, the start of the worldwide famous series of well, impossible seeming missions. This start is one I didn't feel so well about, maybe even sloppy. Brian De Palma directs and I didn't like it so much, I didn't even find Tom Cruise a quality I expect from him, for me this was disappointing. The movie isn't without it's thrilling moments and occasional parts where you think "Oh cool", but all in all a fairly average tale.
The plot is a slight bit of a mess, not well thought out and even though as said moments are thrilling, the actual basis of it all is fairly strange and kind of hard to keep up with at times. I think Cruise as super spy Ethan Hunt is OK but he never gives it his all, he acts a bit too underwhelming and then overwhelming and can't seem to work out how to act certain situations. As for the rest of the cast we see Jon Voight playing the character of Phelps, now Phelps could have been a very intriguing person but Voight manages to bring him down a peg and he becomes almost lifeless in the role.
De Palma is the wrong choice of director, I mean this is in hindsight for me and although he manages to get through the action scenes OK, he never kicks it up a notch and makes some scenes rather bland. As for that action it is OK throughout but some effects can ruin it, not to mention insane stunts which you will see toward the end of the movie. I liked the cinematography, it's nicely done and one thing that sticks out in this, well worked camera positions and also one thing to mention, good locations.
I think to be fair if your looking for spy movies there are better one's out there than this one. Mission: Impossible only serves to show how 90's spy movies were done, crazy gadgets that seem insane and characters that are just impossibly two faced. That all said I would recommend this, in fact most others who I have seen talk about this movie usually talk of it's bad story but the action quota and stunts more than make up for it, I kind of agree but don't think it makes up for it's negative points.
And what of Cruise?, what of all the sequels?(surely this can't be bad with so many after it), well the truth is I can see why the sequels were made. The whole set up isn't bad and even the plot although silly is still unique, this one for me is a blemish but that doesn't mean more like this just better, can't be good. Tom Cruise is a mega star of film and one actor instantly known across the globe, put his face on one of these and throw in him doing his own stunts, and you have yourself a franchise.
Overall I felt slightly disappointed by this movie, although not fully disheartened by it's trying. I know many many people will enjoy this and I do feel this is one of the highest average kind of movies I have seen, so close to being OK. If you can look past the crazy plot and partly bad acting you may love this, oh and add in the insane stunts as well to try and bypass. One last thing to mention here is the writing, oh and it's also not that good, in fact this entire movie is kind of 50/50 all round, some good parts some bad but the script by David Koepp and Robert Towne is a particularly good example of this.