Mission Impossible III (2006)

So previously I had seen all the Mission Impossible films bar this one. The first one I enjoyed as a clever piece of cinema, with additional fondness as I used to play the game on the N64 quite a lot. The second one was a pile of shit, so bad that I avoided the third one when it came out. The fourth one I went to see on a whim, and found myself enjoying so much (despite its flaws) that I thought it best to go back and investigate the third one, as I had heard since that it was actually pretty good. Plus the involvement of JJ Abrams intrigued me as I think that he is someone who is actually making some of the more interesting blockbusters in Hollywood at the moment, not to mention his work in TV.

I don't know if it's because I knew the outcome to the story to a certain extent having seen the following film, or whether I would have felt this anyway, but I found myself disappointed. Don't get me wrong, this isn't Mission Impossible 2, God No. But it isn't great. It all feels a little by numbers. You've got the scene with the massive stunt, the impossible chase sequence, masks, you've got Tom Cruise saving people and a bad evil plot that could end the world. But what you don't have is any real sense of danger. The film moves along at a decent pace, it does the job, but it never excels.

As JJ Abrams first feature film I feel as though I should cut him some slack, as he was handed a high profile picture with established characters and a lousy previous film and told to make do, and the film does have some great moments. There are some very nice action sequences, and it has a plot (already better than number 2), but the plot isn't overly strong, and the characters that we are introduced too aren't especially memorable or likable, with the exception of Simon Pegg, which is perhaps the reason why he remained in the cast for the fourth film and none of the others did barr a small cameo.

The inclusion of Ethan Hunt's wife is something which unfortunately, whilst trying to add an element of the unknown to the film, ends up making it feel slightly more cliched, as it isn't exactly something which has never been done before. Also the film is too long, I don't know how else to say that, I don't know if it's just paced badly, but it feels at times as though it is dragging a little. I guess I'm glad I saw it, but it provided me with none of the thrills of the fourth installment, and didn't strike me as clever like the first film. It was simply there, moving the story along. Which is a real shame, because I really wanted to like this film.