Mind-blowing nonstop action

Rating: 8/10 (23 May 2006)

Mission: Impossible III is an action packed adventure that will have you on the edge of your seat virtually the whole time, with plenty of taut tense moments where you honestly won't know what happens next. Though the storyline itself is a little bit predictable, it is a a few steps up from the second Mission: Impossible. It also gives us a new side of Ethan Hunt's character, one of the high points of the movies, and one of the main reasons I am giving it such a high rating.
The first half hour focuses on Ethan Hunt and how he is engaged to be married to a woman he is completely in love with. We learn how he is no longer doing field work, but has instead chosen a quieter life where he just trains new recruits into IMF. Not surprisingly, something goes horribly wrong on what was supposed to be a routine IMF mission, and Ethan decides to take part in a rescue mission to attempt to retrieve an IMF agent that may have valuable information in relation to a mastermind criminal known as Owen Davian. From the moment the mission begins till the end of the movie, there is virtually no break in the action, except for maybe the occasional three to five minute interval, but even those are filled with tension so thick you could cut it with a knife.
The movie is directed by J.J. Abrams, and he had a hand in the script as well. You can expect great things from the creator of two of TV's biggest smash hits, Lost and Alias. Abrams proves he is not just good for extending tension through forty minutes of TV, but two hours of film as well. His talent translates well onto the big screen, something which I was slightly apprehensive about. He also breathes new life into the Mission: Impossible series by showing us Ethan Hunt's personal life, what goes on outside his mind-blowing missions. He is not just a mindless, perfect agent automaton anymore. He has a heart. He has a life. He has love, and it is this love that drives the movie, helped along of course by Tom Cruise's incredible acting.
The action is relentless, creative, but when compared to the first movie, with the unbelievable scene where Ethan Hunt steals the NOC list, it falls just a little bit short, so I must deduct points for that. In M:i:III there are plenty of amazing and grandiose stunts, but they seem a little extreme sometimes, trying to outdo the first one by making all the stunts huge and big, with massive explosions and jumping from buildings hundreds of stories high. All the stunts are beautifully pulled off, but may be a tad bit too much, from a critic's standpoint.
The villain of the film is another high point - though we've all seen the calm villain that proves he is evil by talking calmly about horrible things, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Academy Award winner for Capote, if you'll recall, makes it just interesting enough to hold our attention without dismissing him as just another typical calm/evil movie villain.
The storyline of M:i:III is the worst part about it. And when I say worst, I mean it works really well for a spy thriller, but it's just a tad bit too generic. It is predictable, where they are going in the movie and how they are getting there, but only on a grand scale - the many twists and turns within the movie are enough to overshadow this by a large amount, and there are plenty of gasp moments in the movie and "oh my gosh!" Of course I cannot review M:i:III without mentioning Tom Cruise's making a fool of himself over the past year, whether it be raving about how much he loves Katie Holmes, or spouting how everyone should follow Scientology. This is a man who has done something that no Hollywood star has ever done before: created a perfect track record. His movies have not made less than $100 million in years. Even those that have not have earned critical acclaim or created a massive following, such as his debut, the incomparable Risky Business. He is a genius when it comes to picking movie projects, and everything he touches can pretty much be guaranteed to turn to box-office gold. He has an unbelievably charismatic personality. And he went away and threatened to destroy all that by making a fool of himself. M:i:III will be the deciding factor on whether or not his off screen antics affect his box-office potential. I have no doubt M:i:III will make a lot of money, probably between $150 million and $200 million, maybe even a little bit higher. But it won't be enough. If makes anything less than the second movie, it will prove that the age of Cruise is drawing to a close.
On the whole, M:i:III is a beautifully directed, beautifully written, beautifully choreographed, and beautifully acted movie. I recommend it without any reservations. It functions very well as its own action packed movie, with plenty of character development and creative, mind-blowing action. Well worth the price of admission.