1 better story. 2 better action. 3 still good

Rating: 8/10 (15 May 2006)

Not groundbreaking, but still very good. 1 was a better story. 2 had better/more action with IMPOSSIBLE flamboyant stunts. 3 story seems to be a rehash of 2. The Woman Ethan loves in peril and he needs to save. If possible story wise, this movie would had made a better 2 and 2 would have made a better 3. The geographical locations and the operations at each place greatly aided in keeping the movie interesting.
Cruise was Cruise so you know what you get there. Philip Seymour Hoffman was a great bad guy, but they did not let him flesh out the badness. His character was a little too matter of fact. As he is, he still was the best bad guy of the series. He did a lot with the little he had. Keri Russell was believable as an action character and with the characters' relationship set-up with Ethan, they could have done more with Keri Russell's character in terms of adding action/story. Michelle Monaghan did well and performed probably the most impossible stunt in the movie by trusting her man at times when it was obvious that everything about him was a lie. Ving and the rest of the ops crew added believability to it.
Overall Mission Impossible 3 is satisfying as movie, but I think it would be OK to wait for DVD and buy all 3 movies.