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Mission: Impossible III
By: Jeff Schade
Hollywood has a love affair with spies it would seem. From the venerable James Bond series to the latest entry in Ethan Hunt’s adventures in the aptly titled Mission: Impossible III there is never a shortage of grandiose missions for them to fulfill. Of course a normal spy, or secret agent, has none of the adventures of there Hollywood counterparts as any rational person would be able to tell you. Still, the entries into the genre are often times at least fun to watch in most cases, apart from being rather illogical.
In the third installment in the, often, misadventures of Ethan Hunt, it is learned that Ethan (Tom Cruise, War of the Worlds), has all but retired from his previous adventures, stepping down in to a teaching role with the IMF (Impossible Mission Force). On the night of the announcement of his engagement to sweetheart Julia (Michelle Monaghan, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) he is summoned by intelligence agent John Musgrave (Billy Crudup, Big Fish) on a request to return to the force for an ill-fated rescue mission to rescue new agent Lindsey Ferris (Keri Russell, The Upside of Anger) . He is soon joined by long time compatriot Luther Strikell (Ving Rhames, Dawn of the Dead), as well as agents Zhen (Maggie Q, Around the World in 80 Days) and Declan (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Matchpoint).
For Hunt though, the mission will be become anything but routine and certainly lives up to its designation within the IMF. Though the rescue is successful, Ferris dies before she can be returned to camp for debriefing. Hunt and his team then soon depart on another mission to complete what she started, intelligence and eventual removal of world wide weapons smuggler Owen Davien (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote). As Hunt gets closer to trapping Davien, the lives of both his team and his fiancé soon become in danger forcing him to drastically alter his plans. From this point on he must both meet the demans of Davien who soon learns of Hunt’s trailing him as well as protect the lives of his team and fiancé before it is too late.
While from a strictly logistical standpoint Mission: Impossible III is utterly preposterous, so long as one allows the film to progress without to much thought into the absurdities it is a rather enjoyable movie. One thing that stands out greatly in the film apart from others such as it is the amount of story development invested into it. Writers J.J. Abrams (creator of TV’s Lost and Alias) as well as Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (also collaborators on Alias) seem to have spent a great deal of time fleshing out the characters beyond what is normally seen in films of this genre. 
The problem with that approach is that the film is just a bit to silly to be taken seriously so the viewer is left with on one hand a more intelligent character-driven film but on the other hand lengthy special effects ridden action sequences. Sure, the action sequences are fun to look at, but after the umpteenth time they get quite repetitive. Even with that problem thought the overall film has a certain quality to it that keeps it enjoyable throughout.
Director J.J. Abrams has certainly given the series an interesting twist, taking it away from the super-stylized second entry in the series which many fans complained played too much like a feature length music video rather then an action film. It is Abrams feature film debut, but he seems to draw on his work from his two hit television series, including fellow spy-drama Alias and never seems to have gotten overwhelmed with the scale of the production.
Of course the biggest question in a film like this is that of whether or not the effects areworth the price of admission. In short, the answer is no. While in days gone past, before the advent of fully computer generated imagery, effects-driven films were event films. They were meant to be seen on the big screen and they were always unique because of the constant advances in technology. Hollywood stable mate Industrial Light and Magic, which also did the effects for fellow Tom Cruise vehicle War of the Worlds certainly invested a great deal of effort this time around. However there isn’t exactly anything new or groundbreaking and as such the effects are decent but not spectacular.
The cast does a decent job, with Cruise managing a rather robust performance, though he is starting to near the age when such action movies will probably not be his forte. Monaghan and Hoffman also deliver strong performances, specifically Hoffman, coming off his Academy Award ® winning role in Capote. The rest of the cast are all good, but really no standouts as either exceptional or sub par. Even the generally exceptional Laurence Fishburne can only deliver an average performance this time around.
Overall, Mission: Impossible III is a decent and entertaining film. It is more character driven then previous entries in its genre, but it also falls prey to many of the traps of fellow spy films. The effects are grandiose, the action is well done, but in the end it just doesn’t make a great film. If not for the investment in well-rounded characters the film would have been much less enjoyable. As it stands, it’s a fun, mindless and rather forgettable but overall enjoyable entry into the action and spy genres.
Mission: Impossible III is a Paramount Pictures Release. Rated PG-13. Running Time: 126 Minutes.
Grade: B
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