Cast: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Keri Russell, & Philip Seymour Hoffman
Directed by: J.J. Abrams
Screenplay by: Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci & J.J. Abrams
Runtime: 126 min
Rating: PG-13
Trailer

The third installment of the Tom Cruise cash-cow franchise – helmed this time around by TV creator J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost) – is a random collection of set pieces that, while usually impressive, ends up being nothing more than empty grand standing, all without the fun or intrigue of the first two in the series. Instead of a stylized spy caper like the first one, or John Woo’s over-the-top action theatrics in the second one, Abrams chooses to mix Alias style melodrama with 24’s gritty action and political wrangling. Because both inspirations are television based, M:I-3’s contribution to the series ends up being less than inspiring, playing more like a big budget pilot episode. Disappointing to say the least, considering it’s the first film to kick off the summer season.

The plot surrounds the retrieval of the Rabbit’s Foot – a blatant MacGuffin the size of Cruise’s paycheck – that is merely a springboard for Hunt and his fellow spies, including his one-note sidekick Luther Strickell (Ving Rhames), to hop around the around the globe stealing, shooting, and blowing things up. This time though, Ethan Hunt has a love interest, his fiancé Julia (Michelle Monaghan), and when her life is threatened by the formidable baddy Owen Davian (a terrific Philip Seymour Hoffman), it’s hard not to summon the great line from the MTV spoof made a couple years ago, when Ben Stiller – as a Cruise stunt double – says, “This mission just got more impossibler”.

As a disposable summer movie going experience, M:I-3 handles its own. It’s filled with action sequences that, despite their excessive running time, do convey a sense of danger and excitement. In fact, that’s the major element of this film that was never fully realized in the first two: the sense of danger. In this film, thanks mainly to Hoffman’s menacing and scene chewing performance, the stakes do seem greater, and there is a heightened sense of risk every time Hunt gets into trouble, like his base-jump off a Shanghai high-rise, or evading incoming missiles on a dilapidated bridge. There’s also the opening scene. I wouldn’t want to spoil it by giving it away but there is a sense of menace and great cruelty that isn’t usually present, let alone attempted, during the opening minutes of a summer blockbuster.

That opening scene quickly cuts to a flashback, but the mostly linear plot is easier to understand than the other two previous films, even though that’s not saying much. No matter how many times you read about Abrams wanting to take the story into the realm of character instead of straight action, give your head a shake and mutter, “bullshit”, because if attaching a fiancé to Hunt’s life means expanding on a character then I must have missed that day’s lecture. In all honesty, the MacGuffin could just as well be the fiancé. Tom Cruise’s performance is what you expect: a lot scowling, toothy grinning and faux-sentimentality. But it’s Hoffman as a murderous arms dealer that really steals the show. Everything from his dry delivery to his imposing and violent mannerisms clearly sets him above most blockbuster villains. It’s a shame, then, that his scant screen time wasn’t extended. Who would have thought you’d want to see more of the guy who played Capote in a Cruise action film?

Abrams has the difficult task of following two excellent visual directors in Brian De Palma and John Woo, and wisely, he doesn’t try to emulate them. His approach eschews slow motion, expressionistic camera angles and self-reflexivity, for a more chaotic, and unfortunately, generic filmmaking technique. The style (both during the dramatic and action scenes) are covered in conventional medium shots and close-ups, which undoubtedly drags the film and weakens its momentum, consequently playing out like a long television episode. Abrams’s one stylistic device that does work, even though it’s underused, is the changing film speeds. The shootout on the bridge comes alive as the shaky camera work and under-cranking hurriedly follows Hunt as he slides and jumps while trying to evade a helicopter. You can’t help but think what might have been had Ridley Scott directed it. I can dream can’t I…?

While I wouldn’t have a problem recommending it to actions fans, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that of all the three, M:I-3 is the most underwhelming.

Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006