Turning Japanese?

Rating: 6/10 (8 May 2006)

Did you know that Tom Cruise can run? He can. Did you know that he can smile? He does. Have you ever seen him get angry? Look no further!
Has there ever been a less versatile actor with more success? No matter. He knows his strengths and plays to them, and he's never been caught brooding or Oscar-baiting.
Mission: Impossible is even less a stab at immortality than most blockbusters. The formula is even baked into the title. Odd that it took three movies for them to follow it! The third time may not quite charm, but it gives us what we want from this sort of movie: flirtation with danger, exhibition of stealth, playful sophistication. You know, stunts and gadgets and dress-up.
While never transcending genre, M:I3 is almost entirely content to be what it is so long as it can be Alias! But J.J. & co. steal from themselves admirably. The only real misstep is a political monologue by the villain; such topical boilerplate pulls us out of what is fundamentally a fantasy, and demonstrates the filmmakers' disregard for their own material. Save the preaching, guys; audiences'll draw their own conclusions anyway.
I do wish they'd kept the theft to the script, though. The biggest problem with the movie is that it's shot like TV. Tight close-ups, few masters. There's a couple of great set pieces, but they don't get the scale they deserve, and so aren't as impressive or as intense as they should be, because of the way they're shot. Well, it won't lose much on video.
Welcome to the big-screen, Mr. Abrams. May you make movies as great as the first 1 1/2 seasons of Alias and the pilot of Lost.