Muy delicioso

Review by Vives Anunciacion
May 10, 2006
Inquirer Libre

Mission: Impossible III
Directed by J.J. Abrams
Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, J.J. Abrams
Starring Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman
PG13/ 126 minutes
Paramount Pictures/ UIP

Ten years after his first Mission Impossible movie, Tom Cruise is jumping over taller buildings and dodging more lethal bazookas as Special Agent Ethan Hunt in the most explosive version of the M:I series. Popcorns please! M:i:III delivers slam-bang block-buster action bursting to the seams.

Credit must be given to M:i:III’s director, J.J. Abrams, who created the phenomenal TV series Alias and Lost. M:i:III flows kinetically the same way the actions and the storyline progress in the said TV shows, maybe trademarks of the successful director. But this aesthetic style is both its strength (compared to previous Mission movies) and weakness (compared to other movies in general).

M:i:III begins at its climax - Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is strapped on a chair being tortured by ruthless arms dealer Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who is in search of a biological weapon known only as the “Rabbit’s Foot”. When Ethan refuses to submit the information, Davian threatens to kill Julia (Michelle Monaghan), Ethan’s fiancée, whom Davian has also captured. Ethan pleads with teary eyes, Davian points a gun at Julia – and then the story backtracks where it should start.

Ethan is enjoying his peaceful semi-retirement with his new wife Julia, who thinks he works for some sort of traffic engineering. One night, as the couple celebrates their marriage with friends, Ethan receives a message from his superiors for another Impossible Mission. Fellow agent and former protégé Lindsey (Keri Russel) has been kidnapped by Davian for information on the Rabbit’s Foot.

Ethan and a team of experts are immediately sent to rescue Lindsey in Berlin. In the movie’s first of many explosive action scenes, the team’s daring rescue is somewhat a success – they manage to retrieve Lindsey from Davian’s minions. But it ends with her tragic death.

Ethan’s team is then sent to the Vatican where Davian is captured in one of the most effective scenes in the movie, involving multiple disguises and acrobatics that will remind audiences that teamwork is one of the hallmarks of this series (though it’s impossible not to say it remains a Tom Cruise movie.) But as in the first operation, this one ends unsuccessfully as well. On route to the IMF headquarters in the US, Davian escapes his high security blanket in one of the noisiest action scenes on a bridge, and in a short time arranges the kidnap of Julia.

The chase leads Ethan to a building in Shanghai, where he must, if he must, throw himself and freefall hundreds of feet into the air to get his hands on the Rabbit’s Foot, which he must trade with Davian for Julia’s freedom. And then it’s back to where the movie started.

M:i:III has all the ingredients of an exciting, popcorn summer blockbuster – great action sequences, great visual spectacles, zero story coherence. The movie belabors the fact that Ethan must conquer insurmountable emotional odds and show Tom Cruise in several teary-eyed shots, because, in the previous M:I movies, we have already seen him surmount all forms of physical odds. A great part of the movie hinges on Ethan’s relationship with wife Julia, so the story about a crazy arms dealer and the friggin’ Rabbit’s Foot is actually just a lengthy sidetrack to what appears to be an intro to M:i:IV – Mr. & Mrs. Hunt.

Michael Giacchino’s music drowns in the avalanche of sound effects. On the other hand, this may mean an Oscar nomination for sound editing. Philip Seymour Hoffman’s acting is dead-on, if only his Davian had more backstory, he played enough for too little. Telephoto close-ups may be okay for TV, but too much of these detach the audience from every scene’s emotion. It’s not cinematic for cinema’s sake – the action set-ups may be big, but not composed for the big screen.

Overall, this Mission is worth the admission; just don’t expect mind-bending story twists and surprises. Get two buckets of popcorn and a giant drink, and then say, “On with the show!”