The idea of a AAA movie of MI is excellent.
But this production, like the rest of the series, betrays its origins and just wants a poor man American 007.
So it turns it into just a one man on the run show, with no official mission to begin with, an evil Jim, no team, no support by MIF, too many locations etc.
I think NONE of these brilliant ideas worked.
It would have been much better had they used the original format.
I've always liked Tom Cruise and his movies. But I have to this day refused to watch any of his Mission Impossible movies. Because after his original Mission Impossible movie was released and I found out through the grapevine that Tom made Jim Phelps into a bad guy, that pissed me right the fuck off, big time!!!! So ever since I refused to watch any of his MI movies. And I know I'm probably missing out on some good shit. But nope. That was too much of an insult.
shareit's a damn movie
shareI admire your dedication.
From 6 movies you missed on a few (mostly ludicrous) action sequences, not much else.
Evil Jim was stupid , insulting, not needed. They did it for two reasons:
1 to focus the movie and series on Cruise (as the blandest, most boring, vanillaest spy ever)
2 to surprise the audience (but they only dissed the real fans, nobody else cared about Jim or even knew him, so the big twist was lame either way). They doubled down on the other big surprise (also super lame): to kill the whole team within 15 minutes after introducing them with the credit sequence. You can smell DePalma thinking "this is such a gutsy twist, har har, everybody is gonna be shocked". Again, big yawns.
Well, that makes me even more glad that I did not watch.
Tom should have just been Jim Phelps!! It should have just been all the same character names. Like in Colin Farrell's SWAT. All the characters that were in the show were also in the movie. But it also pissed me off that they made TJ a sellout. But I didn't know that until I watched it. And that aspect disappointed me. But I still watch it every time I see it on plus I own the DVD.
It could have been an origin story of the young Jim Phelps, set in the 50s or 60s, as he joins MIF.
Or they could have added Ethan as the young spy, but Jim as his mentor and kept as the leader and as a good guy.
Maybe he could have died in a heroic way at the end, if they really really needed to abandon his character.
This script was all just a bad idea. This solo spy has been done a trillion times better. A team of spies, all equally important and each with their own strength, seems more intruiging to me.
How is it a solo spy film? Hunt teams up with Claire, Luther and Krieger for most of the movie.
shareNope, it's Hunt with a bunch of sidekicks scumbags.
As it turns out, only Luther is actually on his side. But that's beyond the point, as all of them just play a sidekick role to the main man.
A typical Bond movie has the same structure, and is undeniably a solo spy film.
Mission Impossible was DEFINED by its team work action. In fact the selection of the agents based on their characteristics was crucial for each mission.
That element is thrown out of the window by this film and frenchise in favor or a Bond structure.
I agree it had very little to do with the TV show, that said, I think its a fantastic film and the best in the series for me.
shareWell, I have problems differentiating between what it is and what it should have been.
This is a MI film, which was a new thing then. So, I expected it to be similar to a MI show, which, like I said, relied heavily on teamwork and coordination.
As a solo spy action film like a bond movie (which clearly they aimed for) is a good movie, with a great spycraft first half.
As a movie based on MI, I think it falls flat and misses the mark by a mile, and it just hijacks the franchise to serve its purposes. So, I stand disappointed.
As a MI movie for what it became in the following decades, I think it's great and the second best (Ghost Protocol is my favorite - exactly because it brings back the element of teamwork from MI that I think it's absent from this first one), far better than anything else in the series.
Never watched the show and spy stories generally are not my thing, but that movie certainly didn't age like a fine wine. Too much cringy non-sense and outdated acting. The scene in the black vault is only memorable part. Made me appreciate the zest Cruise brings to his films. If it wasn't for him, the movie would have been forgotten by now.
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