The first two Mission: Impossible movies were simply movies trying to find their identity. The first movie was one that had Brian De Palma's stylized direction and was more psychological thriller than action. The second one was more of John Woo's style of action and didn't have enough compelling drama or thrills. This is Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner, and J. J. Abrams rebooting the franchise. This finally gave it an identity. Tom Cruise gets to act, rather than perform. The action is more grounded and intense. The stakes are higher. There is also much more of a compelling character driven story headlined by Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and how he balances his work life and keeps his government agent identity secret. This one also gives it the team environment it has going forward.
Synopsis: "Retired from active duty, and training recruits for the Impossible Mission Force, agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) faces the toughest foe of his career: Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an international broker of arms and information, who is as cunning as he is ruthless. Davian emerges to threaten Hunt and all that he holds dear -- including the woman Hunt loves."
The opening of the film is all ready an improvement from Mission: Impossible II. Tom Cruise gets a chance to act alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman goes through a range of emotions: scared, angry, resigned, and finally pleads for wife's life. The gunshot happens and you assume, Julia, (Michelle Monaghan) Ethan's wife is dead. The film then flashes back to a time right before Ethan and Julia get married as they celebrate what looks to be his proposal. This is all ready a better relationship than him and Thandie Newton in the second movie and the scenes with Ethan interacting with Julia's family feel natural and authentic. Even how he gets his mission is interesting. He gets a phone call. Then he throws away the ice as an excuse to go to the convenience store to receive is mission.
After that the film transitions to the first big action set piece where they rescue Agent Lindsey Farris played by Keri Russell. His team is played by Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, and the returning Ving Rhames. Right away there is a sense this team has been working together a long time and they are a perfect combo. Luther (Rhames) handles the sentry guns, Zhen (Maggie Q) handles demolition and Declan (Meyers) flies the helicopter. After Ethan rescues Lindsey you see how well they work together as they form as sort've gun phalanx where they can cover each other's front and back. With just a couple of scenes we see they have trained together and have a past. Just when you think everything is okay a hind helicopter comes for them and a chase ensues. While that chase happens and explosive charge in Lindsey's head is about go off and they have to wait 30 seconds for a defibrillator. These are the type of things that J.J. Abrams and company do the whole movie. Just when you think the action is over it isn't. Just when you think something will work it doesn't.
Some more examples of action intense action scenes is the scene on the bridge after the main villain Owen Davian (Hoffman) has been apprehended. Ethan manages to get an assault rifle but has to put together the rifle before he can use it. Another example is in the scene where they manage to capture Davian but before they can complete the disguise they need 30 seconds for his voice to go through their voice copying mechanism. Before that Ethan makes him read something at gunpoint so they can sample his voice. Those are examples of all the steps the heroes have to go through to get things done and it makes the stakes bigger and the intensity higher. Abrams even comes up with a more grounded way for how the masks are made. You see how long it takes and how they have to get the facial features right and need contact lenses for the eyes. It's much more detailed and grounded than in the first two movies.
There are some other great things in this movie as well. Simon Pegg as Benji becomes a mainstay in the series and brings some quirky and funny energy these movies need. Laurence Fishburne comes off the bench like an NBA player and hits like seven threes in five minutes with some incredible lines as the IMF director. He is having much more fun in that role than Anthony Hopkins did in the second movie. This is the first movie where Luther acts much more like a best friend to Ethan. In some ways he functions as his conscious, talking to him about whether marriage is right for him and even convinces him not to kill someone at a certain point. Without any doubt, Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the best psychologically villainous characters in any action movie made this century. There is an interrogation scene where he manages to emotionally mess with Ethan enough to where Ethan isn't in control for once. He even counts to ten in the opening scene and actually kills someone when he threatens too. Villains never follow through with their threats like that. Having a villain like that only makes Ethan more human and vulnerable as a hero as it shows can't save everyone and gives him more real motivations. Michael Giachhino's score which is half Bernard Herrman with the high pitched horns, and half Michael Kamen with action emphasis only adds to the tension of the action scenes. While I wish J.J. Abrams didn't film some of those scenes like a TV show there is very little for me to fault in this movie. This is one of the best American action movies of the last 20 years.
Rating: 9.5/10
Trivia: Apparently David Fincher was originally set to direct this. Then Joe Carnahan was. Both Sylvester Stallone and Kenneth Branagh were considered for the villains.
Gun of the movie: MP5K PDW submachine-gun
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