Mission: Impossible III

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 2006)

Once again the Mission: Impossible franchise has got a new director, this time TV director JJ Abrams, and it has only improved matters. I've never been a huge fan of the second film, but love the first, especially as it really feels like a spy film  there's barely a shot fired throughout and it requires some effort of thought. What I don't like about the second film is the lack of a team, or at least a team that has some proper role instead of sitting on the sidelines.
This, fortunately, is one of the many things about the new Mission: Impossible that has been fixed. It has also been given a more human element  this time Ethan Hunt has a fiancé, and we get to see the non-IMF side of the character. Granted, these scenes are not numerous but they come in mostly later into the film, and it is a part of the franchise that thus far had been missing. Better still, JJ Abrams shows himself to be a very competent action director, and gives us some scenes that rank amongst the series' best. Particularly stunning is an air vs. ground assault set on a bridge, where Hunt and his team must fight off a plane and a helicopter full of troops from the ground.
The cast all excel themselves as well. Tom Cruise is as excellent as ever, showing both the spy side and the gentleman side of his character with conviction. Also good are Hunts' team (comprising, Ving Rhames, Maggie Q and Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who have more to do this time round and are always on hand to back Ethan up. There's also a scene stealing Simon Pegg, who plays the office computer geek, and adds plenty of fine humour to proceedings. The standout has to be Philip Seymour Hoffman's character, Owen Davian. He is genuinely creepy and utterly ruthless; when he threatens Hunt's fiancé, we feel like he really means it  he is definitely one of the more memorable villains we have seen for a long time.
Another bonus is the relation to the title. Unlike the first two films, this one really does seem like an impossible mission  Davian is always one step ahead, and even when you think things are heading in IMF's favour they're not. It makes you wonder just how they're going to succeed when they are up against such odds, and keeps the tension high.
There are, however, some niggles which after a while begin to really bug the viewer. First up is the camera, which utilises the increasingly popular 'shaky cam'. This is OK to an extent, if used clever and liberally, but the whole film seems shot with it, even the more dramatic scenes, which could really do with a more static camera. It's a problem because it becomes very noticeable, and thus infuriating. It also means the action scenes can at times look muddled, which is a shame because they really are good. The locations, spanning Rome, Shanghai, and Berlin, are exciting but don't serve the story  each sequence could be substituted for anywhere else with no loss to the overall plot, and this seems odd. Why set a scene in the Vatican when it is really unnecessary?
My final negative is the introduction scene. I won't give anything away, but it's one of those 'flash forward' scenes that show you what is coming up. It is annoying because the viewer is left waiting for that scene to come around. All scenes such as this annoy me though, so it's down to personal taste.
I still can't decide whether it is the best of the trilogy or not. Whilst the action is great, it feels so distant from what Mission: Impossible used to be that it is more of a generic action film than a true spy film. It is a good film, and shows us what is possible from the franchise, but it's not quite there yet. Hopefully, if there is a number 4, it will get it all right.
Rated: 7.5/10
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