Cruise Control
✯✯✯ 1/2
It was sometime around when this film was released that audiences began to experience a significant shift in the overall feeling and tone of spy and espionage films. The thrills and action were still present, but writers somehow seemed to manage to bring up the stakes for our action heroes. No longer are the stories about the imminent destruction of the globe or about some priceless heirloom being stolen, but rather, villains seem to be more focused on tearing up our heroes from the inside.
There is still the global threat present, but the way villains in these newer films carry out their diabolical plots became far more focused, more intent on destroying our protagonists alone first before wiping out everyone else. Films like Mission: Impossible III and Casino Royale were the test films for this new style, and audiences actually seemed to receive it quite well. Ever since then it's been pretty hit-and-miss as far as the different series' entries are concerned, but Mission Impossible at least seems more consistent than 007 films have been.
Ethan Hunt is the American James Bond, Tom Cruise is our Daniel Craig, and he is as good as ever in this sequel. His acting always makes films better to me, although he can fall prey to a terrible plot and script now and again. Even Mission Impossible at its worst has a few redeeming qualities, and finding the good in the films is what makes them so enjoyable.
Each of the Mission Impossible films has its own style and feel to it, a byproduct of never having the same director twice. Whereas the first film had the schizophrenic and intense direction of Brian De Palma, MI:2 was a bit bogged down by the overly gratuitous use of explosions, doves, and frenetic gun-play, as is the style of John Woo. This third entry, however, is brilliant in its own right- with JJ Abrams at the helm, we get a delicious thrill ride with some spectacular action sequences, and yet still a somewhat disappointing third act that fizzles into obscurity.
The plot itself was fairly well-done, but after the third act began, everything started to go downhill. Even Philip Seymour Hoffman (RIP) couldn't seem to get into the finale, and his character at that point felt like a piece of cardboard. Don't get me wrong though, I believe that Hoffman was fantastic in the film up to this point, and he has never really managed to deliver a fully disappointing performance of his own device. And yet, I feel that JJ Abrams somehow threw away a little part of the character that should have stayed. I don't exactly know what he got rid of, but I just felt that something was missing in his character, almost to the point that he feels like many Marvel villains do now: hollow and shallow.
However, I've never been fully disappointed in a Mission: Impossible film yet, and the adventure in this entry was just as fun as the others, and still better than its predecessor. Tom Cruise still manages to deliver fantastic performances as this series' hero, and I still deem him worthy of being titled the true "James Bond of America." JJ Abrams is still a very talented director, and while this definitely isn't his best, he wasn't that bad in the end. Mission: Impossible III is a flawed but superbly enjoyable thrill ride that delivers on the action and suspense, and is certainly not my least favorite entry in the series. Here's to hoping that Rogue Nation blows all the other ones out of the water.