Introduction:
Mission: Impossible II didn’t go down too well with most folks. John Woo’s
style seemed at odds with the franchise and was too different from the twisty
thriller that Brian Depalma delivered. It appeared the franchise was stalled.
But Tom Cruise wasn’t about to let that happen. They brought in popular
television director J. J. Abrams and gave him his first shot at a big budget
motion picture. Was it worth the gamble?
Summary:
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is
settling into a nice quite life with his fiancé Julia (Michelle Monaghan). Sure
he stays in touch with his old pals at the MI office and does some teaching of
new recruits. But he wants to leave that life behind. Which means he’s going to
get pulled right back into it.
One of his former students,
Agent Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) has been caught during an investigation of
a powerful arms dealer Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Lindsey has vital
information and Ethan is pulled in for one last job, to save Lindsey and find
out what info she has. For this impossible mission he’s going to need the help
of his old pal Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames reprising his role from the
original film) and two new agents Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Lei
(Maggie Q). But there’s a catch, Davian seems to be one step ahead of them, and
he’s not going to allow any of Ethan’s missions, impossible or otherwise, to
succeed.
Good Points:
- Does a great job balancing thrills and action
- Captures the intensity of the first film with some intense sequences
- The story makes Ethan a bit more human
Bad Points:
- Some annoying overuse of shaky camera style
- Seymour Hoffman seems a bit underused
- Tom Cruise is playing Tom Cruise… again
Overall:
Abrams did a fine job with
his first full-length movie, and a big budget star vehicle at that. The story
has a bit more of a personal edge to it, allowing us to get to know Ethan a bit
better, but Cruise is still Cruise no matter what the script says. Some of the
actions scenes get a bit confusing with the camera work, and some of the
dialogue scenes have the shaky-cam syndrome. But the pacing is pretty solid and
Michael Giacchino’s score is a great mix of modern cool with the classic themes
from the television series. The film takes itself deadly serious, and a little humor could have helped. An enjoyable thrill ride for weekend viewing.
Scores
(out of 5)
Visuals: 4
Sound: 4
Acting: 3
Script: 4
Music: 4
Direction: 4
Entertainment: 3
Total: 4
Mission: Impossible Reviews
I should check this one out. Chris Stuckmann on YT has been reviewing the the MI franchise as there's a new movie in the works. So far he's only reviewed the first one, but I'm curious how he'll review the others. I assume they will mirror yours here. They'll have to get someone new for the Ving Rhames role, it should be interesting to see what the new films is about.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thank you for recommending Stuckmann's work. I've been enjoying his reviews quite a bit, and he's a really solid critic who keeps things fun and interesting. Besides, he seems to like anime as much as I do.
DeleteI was really excited to see him tackling the M:I movies, and I really liked his review of the first one. I'm hoping he gets to the rest, because I really want to hear what he thinks of the rest.
For this one, I know a lot of folks think this is the best of the bunch. But some of the camerawork really got on my nerves and as I mentioned it really didn't have much humor in it. Still, some great stunts going on in this one.