Movie Reviews
It’s been quite awhile since last I watched either of the first two “Mission Impossible” movies, but I’m pretty sure I can say that “Mission: Impossible III” is the best of the lot. The action is better, the stakes are higher, and the visuals, oh, the visuals....
Director J.J. Abrams has been in TV for a long time and has been successful for a long time. I often worry that small screen producers can’t communicate they’re vision to the big screen and still tell the story they had to tell. I couldn’t tell you if Abrams is happy with “M.I.3,” but I can tell you that there is a high stakes game at play during the film, and every inch of it is yearning to show us something we’ve never seen before.
The film starts off in the same way that many directors have chosen to start their film these days: the end. Or, to be technical, the somewhere in the third act. Is this old news? Not really. Of course it’s not terribly original, but it’s a fantastic way to build suspense from the get-go. And in case you have not noticed, “Mission: Impossible” is all about suspense.
One of the obvious strengths of the film is Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian, the villain of the picture. Hoffman’s Davian holds the reigns of that opening scene, and despite having no inkling as to who his character is yet, he is chilling. And he holds that iciness hostage for the entire film. When Hoffman is onscreen, our knuckles are white.
Davian is a very rich, very powerful illegal arms trader. At the time of the film, he’s desperately seeking the Rabbit’s Foot, a device that the film never chooses to elaborate on. All we know is that it’s nicknamed the Anti-God, a device so lethal that it could destroy most of mankind. Scary.
Meanwhile, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is on his way to stop Davian, who proves to be a hard shell to crack. Hunt’s team is haunted by the loss Lindsay (Keri Russell), an agent that Hunt trained himself and very-nearly saved during a mission gone wrong. Lindsay held vital information on Davian; information that held the key to finding Davian and stopping him. Through a series of mismatches and computer searches, they begin to piece the puzzle together.
They’re off to Europe, where the film takes on the unmistakable “Mission Impossible” style. The film shows us how to breach the walls of the Vatican and pose as a priest in a matter of seconds. It shows us how to make ourselves blow up in a car and survive. It shows us every totally implausible, unlikely way to do something impossible. J.J. Abrams is immensely talented that this.
And at the same time we always feel the story surging forward with joyous pace, each explosion or stunt being the stepping stone to the next piece of the puzzle and to the electric climax. ***