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PLOT: Super agent Ethan Hunt's resolve is compromised when a super villain attacks his one vulnerable spot. Plausible drama and outlandish action alternate up to a predictable yet satisfying climax.
Mission: Impossible III has high style, savage violence and an uncanny balance of drama and action.
This potential summer blockbuster, should you choose to accept it, will revive the ragged Mission: Impossible franchise. It may also help you forget Tom Cruise's odd off-screen behaviour -- because he's so damned good here as secret agent Ethan Hunt -- and should clinch Philip Seymour Hoffman as a major screen presence.
Hoffman is critical because every good hero needs a worthy villain. Hoffman, newly minted as an Oscar-winner for his sterling work in Capote, shucks off Truman Capote's delicate flamboyance in M:i:III and delivers.
As an arms dealer with no moral code but plenty of appetite for one-on-one vengeance, Hoffman does the job with zeal and dedication to meanness. So much so, that he ranks as one of the best movie baddies since Hannibal Lecter sauteed human flesh with a side order of fava beans.
This delicious villainy helps co-writer and first-time director J.J. Abrams dazzle us. Considering that this is his first feature film as director, and it is a $140-million project loaded with effects and shot in eight locales in the U.S. as well as in Italy and China, this is nothing short of a movie miracle.
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Abrams pulls it off with panache, infusing the movie with some of the same elements that helped turned Alias and Lost into TV series hits. There is action aplenty but there is also an emphasis on character, personalized dramatic moments and a reason for the action to happen.
In this case, Cruise's Hunt has a personal life. He romances Michelle Monaghan. But that makes him vulnerable when Hoffman uses her as a pawn in his vicious game. There is nothing new about that device, of course, but it is done with conviction here. Abrams, who collaborated on the script with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, had a goal: To make M:i:III viable on its own without reference to Bruce Geller's original TV series or the two earlier instalments of the movie franchise. He succeeds.
Part of the dazzle is getting us to believe in the plot device, the so-called "Rabbit's Foot" weapon of unknown origin and unknown power. This is one of those Alfred Hitchcock McGuffins (as an IMDb contributor has already noted), which means it is utterly irrelevant but everybody in the movie is obsessed with it.
McGuffins allow filmmakers to move things ahead and concentrate of the real reason to watch the movie: Individual scenes that, in this case, swing wildly from huge set pieces such as The Vatican scam to intimate moments such as when Hoffman puts the boots to Cruise in hand-to-hand, foot-to-face combat.
The movie is well cast in support roles. Keri Russell is a key character (Abrams cast her in his TV series Felicity), Monaghan is vibrant, and Ving Rhames is welcome any time on screen. Other top performers include Billy Crudup, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Maggie Q and Laurence Fishburne in a role loaded with menace and gravitas.
Overall, Mission: Impossible III is a kick-ass way to launch the summer season.
BOTTOM LINE: After faltering in the John Woo sequel, Mission: Impossible is back on track -- with gusto -- as J.J. Abrams balances action spectacle with character-driven moments.
(This film is rated PG)