Mission: Save your money

Rating: 4/10 (17 May 2006)

For me, M:i:III was an impulse watch, something I went to see and paid the hefty admission for because it was there. Unfortunately, unlike some impulse discoveries, MI3 wasn't a positive surprise. Actually, it wasn't pretty much anything. It was just there.
Well, maybe there was one surprise in the movie. I took the risk that it would be another Mission: Impossible 2, even without director John Woo. This time, instead, J.J. Abrams, the director from the TV series Lost, took the helm. Perhaps it's no surprise then that M:i:3 is as exciting as a standard TV movie. Not to say that this isn't a big-budget film, absolutely not: the stars are well paid and the sets and locales are gorgeous. But even with high production values, the movie is bland and unimaginative, mostly due to directing and script.
MI3 really tries to be an exciting action movie. There are explosions, lots of hanging-by-the-thread situations, car chases, hand-to-hand combat and whatnot, a little of everything, except imagination and soul. For example, there's a scene where Ethan Hunt leaps off the roof of a building. That was a great opportunity for a massive camera dive that would have really captivated the audience, but no. Instead we get a boring stunt side shot, the like which we have seen countless times before. And that's just the problem with M:i:3: it has nothing new. From the plot to the action scenes, everything in this movie lacks the excitement and suspense of an action movie, because it has all been seen countless times over the past 20 years.
M:i:3 is not a movie that pushes action movies forward, and that is why even the high production values end up in mediocrity. It's not a bad movie, but it's not a good one either, just hopelessly bland and unimaginative. In some ways, it even compares unfavorably to last summer's Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which was another dull dozer. You would do better to invest the ticket fare in a DVD of Kung Fu Hustle, for example, or just about anything else that you know you'll like.