Do you like the TV series Alias? You know, the series from JJ Abrams, it’s just finishing its run in the US now after five series. In Britain, the series floated around various stations. I think Bravo show it now.
Anyway, if you, you’re going to love M:I 3, because it’s essentially a big screen version of that. That’s not surprising since Abrams is the director of this film. And he’s done a pretty good job. After the dire simplicity and pointlessness of the second in the franchise, Abrams has pushed everything up a notch. In many ways Abrams is completely the right choice for this film. Alias was effectively a modern day version of the old Mission: Impossible TV series, and he doesn’t put too many feet wrong.
The big “thing” about this edition in the franchise is that Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is involved on a personal level. The opening scene in the film shows him having a wife or girlfriend threatened until he gives up some information. It’s quite a scary scene in what’s a 12A film. I probably could have done without that plot point to hang the film on, but the film series has very little relation to the TV series. Gone are the days when the team would carefully mock-up the interior of a submarine in a warehouse somewhere in order to persuade the bad-guys that they were in the middle of the Atlantic or something. The film series is all about international locations and gadgets. But the life-like masks are still retained.
Abrams seems to have spent quite a lot of time watching The Bourne Supremacy to study the Paul Greengrass style of action film. The cutting is fast and the camerawork not always clear. It all adds to the verisimilitude of the piece. Abrams has brought his TV composer with him, Michael Giacchino, and he does a great job of giving us a traditional M:I score. The action is pumped up and full-on with the very able-bodied Vic Armstrong doing a sterling job.
I won’t go into the actual plot of the film too much, except to say that the Rabbit’s Foot is possibly the ultimate cinema McGuffin. And I did like the sequence where Cruise goes through an ornate process to break into building to collect something. But once he’s “on” the building, we’re left in the dark as he’s inside, and instead stay with the supporting cast in the cars outside.
The only downside in this Alias love-in is that, aside from the lack of Jennifer Garner, there is one of those typical at-home-with-easy-listening-music scenes near the start that were always my least popular bits of Alias.
The cast is relatively star-studded, with Ving Rhames as the only carry-over that I noticed from previous films. Philip Seymour Hoffman turns in a believably nasty villain. Jonathan Reys Meyers in pretty anonymous, and Maggie Q doesn’t have to do much to look good. Simon Pegg completely steals his scenes playing a cross between Q from the Bond films and Marshall from Alias – more of the latter really.
Overall, it’s back on form for this series then. Very enjoyable, good special effects, well-equipped bad guys, great locations (NB. If I was in charge of organising social events at The Vatican, I expect I’d be a little more careful about who I invited), and outrageous stunts. A good start to the summer season then.