This film should have been called "Malias"...

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2006)

From the creators of the TV show "Alias," we now have "Malias"... or the male version of Jennifer Garner's famous spy role. For anyone not familiar with ABC's Alias, Mission Impossible III is a great movie. But for anyone who knows Alias' various tricks and plot twists might be less impressed. On the one hand, Tom Cruise does a fine job. He played his character well. The action sequences, especially the ones in Shanghai, were very effective, but, in making M:I-3, director and co-writer J.J. Abrams seems to have drawn heavily on two of his prior TV shows---Felicity and Alias---for inspiration, both in terms of style (the party scene near the beginning seemed inspired by Felicity) and plot twists and action scenes inspired by Alias. Of course, there are cast overlaps among all three with Felicity's Keri Russell and Felicity/Alias's Greg Grunberg playing all-too-brief roles in M:I-3. However, it's unfortunate that Keri could not have played a more developed character in the film. Nonetheless, these earlier influences were obvious from the very first scene, which used a typical Alias forward/backward plot device that's been used in virtually every season of Alias. The scene starts in the future then we spend three quarters of the movie backtracking to discover how we got to that first scene. Then we see the manipulation. And bang, bang the spy saves the world again. Just like Alias this is true of M:I-3. Considering the action scenes alone, however, they really were impressive, particularly those of Tom Cruise running through the streets of Shanghai and leaping off of buildings. Camera angles were perfect. But viewing Mission Impossible III makes one believe that Alias could make an effective transition from television to the silver screen. "Alias, The Movie" could make for an even better film since its plots are more complex than M:I-3. But with Tom Cruise as the male version of the central spy, his performance as "Malias" delivers the goods. For that this movie deserves 7/10 with an extra point for anyone unfamiliar with the classic TV show on which this movie seems to be based.... not "Mission Impossible" but "Alias."