Despite being a trilogy (for another week), the films of the Mission: Impossible franchise really couldn’t be more different. The first entry played it straight with a few double-crosses, secret rendezvous, and some noteworthy stunts that have since become pop culture spoof staples; it was a spy movie through and through. When John Woo helmed the sequel, the bar was raised considerably in the action beats, but dropped just about everywhere else, becoming a fast, loud spectacle that lacked the intrigue of the first and felt less like an espionage thriller and more like a basic action flick. Then Mission: Impossible III brought the franchise back on track but with a much more brutal tone to its action beats that corrected the campy throwback feel of the original and finally saw the Mission: Impossible films realizing their full potential. The first three films average out to two enjoyable spy films with a two-hour mindless intermission between them. As far as trilogies go, that’s better than can be said for most.
Brian De Palma loaded the first Mission: Impossible with just about everything a modern update of the 1966 TV series needed to still resemble its roots, but capture the interest of an audience where only a portion knew the series for more than its theme song. De Palma got more than he could have hoped for in Tom Cruise as his leading man, and as Ethan Hunt, Cruise leads a cast including Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Jon Voight, and Emmanuelle Beart. The mission sees Hunt disavowed after a mission goes horribly wrong and he’s framed as a mole in the CIA, leaving him with no alternative but to launch a mission that will clear his name once and for all.
In Mission: Impossible II Ethan Hunt has to use every trick he knows to hunt down a man who knows all the same tricks. It’s the classic spy vs. spy scenario, only in M:I-2 one of the spies (Dougray Scott) is a terrorist on the verge of unleashing a menace that could put just about everyone in the world at risk. Once again he’s joined by fellow agent Luther (Rhames), and this time Thandie Newton tags along as the dangerous love interest whose agenda occasionally intercepts Ethan’s own. Just about all of the stunts go over-the-top and though it looks very much like John Woo stunts, it never has the grit or the boldness of his typical efforts. Everything that should scream John Woo is drowned out by all the highly polished sequences that ultimately blend together to form an indistinct, deafening hum.
The third impossible mission, helmed by J.J. Abrams, took the best elements of its predecessors and combined them into a fantastic espionage thriller with a great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman as a remorseless arms dealer intent on getting his hand on a new weapon and selling it to the highest bidder. The mission calls Ethan Hunt away from his newly established suburban lifestyle and loving wife (Michelle Monaghan) into an international game of chess where hostages, air strikes, and impostors are par for the course. Again, Cruise and Rhames return, but this time the supporting cast easily reaches a new high with Simon Pegg posing as their tech guru, and Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Keri Russell, and Maggie Q rounding it out. Of course the real star in this one if Hoffman, who easily outshines Cruise and puts the villains of the past two films to shame.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Both Mission: Impossible and M:I-2 have a decent number of featurettes, with a few common threads to be found between them. There’s a behind-the-scenes piece for each film, as well as a look at Tom Cruise and his impact as cultural icon and action star. Other featurettes look at the filming locations, some of the more iconic stunts, and a retrospective on the Mission: Impossible legacy. By comparison, Mission: Impossible III seems inexcusably lacking. Considering it’s the most recent installment, you’d think they could have given us more than just an audio commentary between Cruise and Director J.J. Abrams. But no, apparently you’ll have to buy the single release of M:I-3 on Blu-ray if you want it all (of course, I’m just guessing that release has more).
"Mission: Impossible - Extreme Blu-ray Trilogy" is on sale December 6, 2011 and is rated PG13. Action, Thriller. Directed by Brian De Palma, JJ Abrams, John Woo. Written by David Koepp, Ronald D. Moore, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci. Starring Billy Crudup, Dougray Scott, Jon Voight, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Michelle Monaghan , Philip Seymour Hoffman, Simon Pegg, Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames.
