Tom Cruise is not synonymous with MI

Rating: Null/10 (3 May 2006)

Mission Impossible is one of those movies that I anticipate very much, and watch willingly, even with the huge text saying "TOM CRUISE", which usually is interpreted as "DON'T WATCH". I have always enjoyed Mission Impossible since I was a small kid. I actually liked the first Tom Cruise Mission Impossible. But over the years, one of the gripes I have with MI1 and MI2 is that it's purely a Tom Cruise adventure, with some help from Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames). MI is supposed to be a team effort, team spying, team playing, sort of thriller, but it has always been about Ethan Hunt (Cruise) flying everywhere doing everywhere as the all knowing all powerful secret agent who can take on the world.
Okay, rant is over. When I watched the trailer for MI3 I rejoiced at the idea that the show will be about the Impossible team doing stuff. I thought to myself, that's what MI should be all about. And true to that, Ethan Hunt has a team now! Zhen (Maggie Q), Declan (Meyers) and Luther (Rhames). These characters do get their fair share of screen time, and in that sense, MI3 is a little bit more watchable than previous movies.
That being said, sometimes I felt that the sidekicks exist only as mannequins. In the more explosive sequences, where Ethan Hunt jumps across the blown up bridge, assembles a gun, shoots down planes and baddies, jumps over cars and giants and monsters and octopuses and bang bang bang bang bang (and as my friend Joanne puts it, "not a single scratch, or blood") and I asked myself, "the other agents stand there and do nothing issit?" So, fans of traditional Mission Impossible, do not be deceived, it's still a Tom Cruise affair.
So the story goes that Ethan Hunt wants to marry and settle down, only to have a baddie, Owen Davian (Hoffman) catch her and forces Hunt to find the "Rabbit's Foot" (the codenames for stuff these days are just getting too cool) in exchange for her life. Phillip Seymour Hoffman, while not having a load of screen time, is a presence to reckon with. Despite being the villain, and the master of all chaos, he is perhaps the only truly serene character in the film, and his composure as the evil mastermind affirms his status as an Academy Award winner.
The script is fascinatingly good. JJ Abrams, who has scripted most of Alias and Lost (two big time award winning T.V. series) brings his talent to the big screen, and does it well. The lines are witty, precise, and unpredictable. I particularly enjoyed the chemistry between Ethan and Luther that was so severely lacking in the first two movies.
For those who are interested to know, Michael Giacchino's music for this film is okay, no match for Hans Zimmer. But that's probably cos I'm biased.
Watch this film. It's a good warm up for the bigger hits that's coming, such as SUPERMAN! But anyway, jokes aside, there are some very fantastic action sequences, such as the Vatican operation, where the team attempts to kidnap the baddie right in the middle of Vatican City. If you can endure Tom Cruise's prolonged screen presence, there's a pot of gold that can be found at the end of the movie.
6.5/10