First of all, a confession. I have not seen Mission Impossible 3. I intended to, both at the time, and in the last few weeks to prep me for the new film, however I was reluctant. The main reason for this is probably Mission Impossible 2. The first Mission Impossible film is fantastic, it's a taught thriller with great performances and showed what you could do with a good TV adaptation. Then years later a trailer emerged for Mission Impossible 2, a film I didn't expect them to make. The trailer showed Tom Cruise hanging off a cliff, I remember the trailer really well because it was superb. The film however I am struggling to remember. I remember something about a boat and a missile and the rest I don't really care about. The reason? the film was tedious and left me cold at the end of it.
So then along comes Mission Impossible 3, with another great looking trailer, and it even has good reviews, but my survival instincts kick in and tell me not to fall for it again, so I avoided it, and continued to do so right up until even now. With Mission Impossible 4 though, again there was the impressive looking trailer, but you also had an important ingredient that you didn't have last time. Brad Bird. Now I know that JJ Abrams did the last one, and I like JJ Abrams, but Brad Bird is Simpsons alumni, from the classic era, the era of Greg Daniels, John Swartzwelder and so on, basically when the Simpsons was the best TV show around, or arguably ever. He also directed the first Pixar film which I would consider 'grown up' if you like. The Incredibles was the first Pixar film that I felt move away from children, and whilst every Pixar film had adult elements in them, the Incredibles seemed to thrive off them more. It also had kick ass action sequences which were filmed with inventiveness abound. So the prospect of him directing a big budget action film proved to be too intriguing to miss.
The film itself is basically what I wanted. It's not trying to be too clever, which isn't to say it's dumb, it's not trying to be gritty, which isn't to say it's light hearted, and it does the big action thing very well. The basic plot is that someone blows up the Kremlin and the steals the Russian nuclear launch codes, and the blame is placed on the IMF and America, so the IMF are dissavowed and have to try and stop a rogue nuclear attack which would start world war III without the help of the US government. This is also the film which introduces us to Jeremy Renner's character who is supposedly Tom Cruise's replacement when he decides he's had enough. I quite like the idea of introducing the character this early on, gives us a chance to warm to him before letting him loose on his own franchise.
I can't really ignore the best scene in the film, because quite frankly it's what everyone will remember from the film. Yes it's that bit in the trailer where Tom Cruise (because it was actually him) climbs the tallest building in the world, and then swings down and through an open window. It is a very impressive piece of cinema that made me feel very uncomfortable, with every new challenge along the way I felt tense and nervous, some of it has to be seen to be believed. There are some very nice moments in the film too, for example when the film has two identical meetings occurring at the same time, with certain members of the team pretending to be the opposite sides of the meeting for the real people who were supposed to be meeting (if I've put that at all clearly), with earpieces linking the two up and some nice cutting between the two it played out really nicely.
The film is a great deal of fun. It's not brilliant, the story isn't particularly fleshed out, and some of the sub plots such as Jeremy Renner's past feel a little rushed, and perhaps slightly contrived to link everything neatly. There is also one chase which personally I would have liked to have seen cut by about 30 seconds. It's hardly groundbreaking cinema, but Brad Bird has shown that he can create wonderful live action scene's with just as much flare as his animated ones, Tom Cruise has shown that he can still do some wonderful stunts, and Simon Pegg (who I must mention as he provides many of the light hearted moments which make the film so enjoyable) shows that he can do hollywood, after some dodgy roles he's found a role which he fits really rather well. Anyone going to see a Mission Impossible sequel and expecting a masterpiece is deluded, however this isn't going to disappoint anyone going in expecting a fun piece of cinema over this holiday period.
No comments:
Post a Comment