An extended episode of Alias...

Rating: 9/10 (9 March 2008)

...and I loved it for it.
The plot of the film is Ethan Hawk is recruited back in IMF after going into semi-retirement. An agent he had trained had been captured by Owen Davian, a major weapons trader, and Hawk has to go and save her. She gets killed during the rescue and this leads to Hawk having a vendetta against Davian and his team captures him in the Vatican City. At the same time IMF are looking for a secret weapon called the Rabbit's Foot. Subplots of the film are Hawk's relationship and marriage and his guilt about the death of his former agent. (I don't want to give too much away).
Mission Impossible III was directed by J.J. Abrams, creator of Alias and Lost. He wrote the script with two other Alias writers and the film has many features that were in Alias. The action was non-stop, the acting was good, especially Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian, who seemed to really enjoy playing a villain. The film has many qualities of Alias. They are international locations, including Berlin, Rome and Shanghai. The use of martial arts and the characters being resourceful. They were also good dialogue in the film and some humorous moments, especially with Simon Pegg who was playing a Marshall type character from Alias. If you are an Alias or Bond fan (especially if you liked Pierce Bronsan) then this film would interest you. It may not have the gritty realism of Casino Royale or the Bourne Trilogy (which are both excellent, especially Casino Royale), but it still has the felt that it set down to Earth, unlike Moonraker or Die Another Day. Many people have said that the film was more like the show because of the use of teamwork. I cannot judge because I never watched the show, but it's better then the previous two films because of the use of a team.
My only complain is really a complain of the series. It is basically Schizophrenic because in the first film Hawk was with the CIA, second IMF was a part of an Interpol type organisation and the third its an independent US agency. I would have preferred it if they dropped the IMF title and made it a CIA dark-op division or something on those lines.
The film did not do as well as expected in the box office, but it was not because of the film itself, but because of Tom Cruise's off-camera antics.