So the 2006 summer blockbuster season is officially on and kicking it off is Tom Cruise with Mission Impossible 3. It’s safe to assume this has been a very successful movie franchise and the third in the series is nothing less.
Don’t go into this movie expecting anything other than a good action-adventure-popcorn movie. It’s got the “bang” people who go to watch it are expecting. The mission this time is to recover an agent which then leads the hero Ethan Hunt to the second mission of recovering an unknown advanced technological weapon. What I don’t like in action movies is the flaky love interest. But of course it’s an important element for two reasons: first, between flying bullets and exploding cars the hero always has to stop for a moment to kiss the girl and second, the girl must always be available for kidnapping by the villain so that the hero has to rescue her. This is exactly what happens in MI:3. James Bond was a trend setter.
But there are other elements that belong only to MI:3. There’s the latex faces, an intimidating Ving Rhames and of course that Tom Cruise defining scene of raising his arms and legs as he stops a few inches short of the ground from a wire: the equivalent of Keanu Reeves dodging bullets in The Matrix.
Story wise, I think the first one was so infamously complicated and confusing that they’ve been trying to refine the simplicity ever since. Even when the plot thickens the audience is given the Cliff notes version on the screen. There are still surprises mixed in with some predictability.
It’s a solid action movie and Tom Cruise pretty much owns the role. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a great villain; I was actually pleasantly surprised at how cool he can be. J.J Abrams does a great job directing this movie, following the footsteps of Brian De Palma and John Woo who helmed the first two respectively. Abrams did the shows “Lost” and “Alias” so essentially MI:3 kind of runs like the latter show. There are no memorable action scenes the likes of the helicopter in the Chunnel in MI:1, but a very nice car gets blown up.
Either way, if you want to be entertained go and see it.
Bottom Line: 3/5
I’ve watched it on Wednesday, I honestly expected worse but it wasn’t bad at all.Yup, I’ve been entertained.
I know I should not associate the actor with the character too much but, sincerely speaking, I hate Tome Cruise. Consequently, I do not think I will watch the movie at all.
When will it be shown in Jordan in any theatres in Amman?
Muha, sorry I don’t know when it’ll show up in Amman but I’m guessing in the next few days if not already now.