Mission Impossible 3
With a theme song by Limp Bizkit and directed by John Woo, Mission Impossible 2 leaves a lingering bad taste of impulse trends from the start of the millennium. Admittedly, I hadn’t been looking forward to M:I:3 previously, with nothing but Philip Seymour Hoffman’s involvement to even make me feign an interest.
Given the opportunity to interview the director (J J Abrams) during the holidays, I just couldn’t say no! On a balmy Wednesday morning after working into the wee hours to finish an assignment for uni, I sat down for a videoconference with J J and female lead, Michelle Monaghan, to discuss all things Mission Impossible.
In the lead-up to the screening I was interested to see the result from their hard work and to sum up my feelings overall, I was pleasantly surprised.
Differing from the previous instalments, M:I:3 sets its focus on Ethan Hunt (Cruise) in a more human sense. The film opens with Hunt no longer a part of the IMF, instead settling down to enjoy his new found home life with partner Julia (Monaghan). Desperate times call for desperate measures and Hunt is called back into the line of duty to retrieve his student from IMF, Lindsey, who has been kidnapped investigating the proceedings of Owen Davian (Hoffman) in Europe. Things start to go haywire from here as Hunt and his team find themselves only on the tip of the iceberg. Hunt is challenged by a clash in values between doing what’s right by the IMF and what will save the life of the one he loves.
To put it bluntly, if you’re going into a Mission Impossible movie, you know what to expect. You expect spectacular stunt sequences. You expect a twisted web of lies and deceit. M:I:3 delivers on all levels, but never do the stunt sequences feel too outrageous nor that the story has been written around them as in MI2. The balance between these key aspects is well managed, in a return to form for this once tarnished series. I found it easy to follow the twists and turns, yet not so obvious that I picked them from the start. It kept my interest nicely from one action scene to the next.
Acting is as expected; It even held off my hatred of Cruise to feel for Hunt’s toils. Phillip Seymour Hoffman delivers his usual fantastic performance, although he seems somewhat out of place, almost constrained. Needless to say though, he delivers an intimidating persona that perfectly helps create the cold-hearted character intended. It’s definitely worth watching for a notable cameo by Simon Pegg of Shaun of the Dead fame.
Don’t expect M:I:3 to blow your mind, know what you want and you’ll be happy with the result. It may still have another ‘it’ director with a theme song by an ‘it’ artist, but neither take the spotlight, delivering an overall enjoyable 2 hours of special effects, espionage and deceit.
8/10
Matt Williams
