Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 38 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 209 Ratings

  • Starring: Michelle Monaghan, Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames
  • Summary: Tom Cruise returns as Special Agent Ethan Hunt, who faces the mission of his life and a new villain (Hoffman) in Mission: Impossible III. Director J. J. Abrams ("Lost," "Alias") brings his unique blend of action and drama to the billion-dollar franchise. (Paramount Pictures)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 38
  2. Negative: 0 out of 38
  1. A gratifyingly clever, booby-trapped thriller that has enough fun and imagination and dash to more than justify its existence.
  2. 78
    It's all poppycock, of course, but it's done with such vim and vigor and both narrative and visual flair that you care not a jot. Summer has arrived.
  3. 75
    Bury the nostalgia. Like the rap twist Kayne West puts into the film's classic theme, this movie is best when it stirs it up.
  4. Reviewed by: Ian Nathan
    60
    An inspired middle-hour pumped by some solid action gives you an idea how good the franchise could be, but we now live in a post-Bourne, recalibrated-Bond universe, where Ethan Hunt looks a bit lost.

See all 38 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 65 out of 94
  2. Negative: 16 out of 94
  1. BillyB.
    10
    Not only is this movie just as good as the first two, but I would even say it was my favorite. With new concepts and a good story line, I thought this movie was excellent! Expand
  2. That's what a call action, and good one. it's a low 8, but for the type of movie I was very impressed, I watched the first one, didn't like it that much, but this one i enjoyed. J.J. Abrams had to came to make this collection better off course. Tom Cruise was freaking fantastic in the movie, like he was jumping, shooting, killing, hell that **** was awesome. Expand
  3. J.J Abrams sorta made "Mission Impossible 3" with a ominous fuse of Brian De Palma's story and John Woo's action. The result? Manageable.
  4. Mission: Impossible III is always competent, and is considerably better than M:I-2 but lacks the excitement and consistency of the first film. The action is generally well handled, but ranges from jaw-dropping set-pieces (the scene where the IMF team frantically try to bring down a lethal military drone on a rapidly disintegrating bridge), to the ridiculous (Ethan Hunt BASE jumping from halfway down a Shanghai skyscraper) to the uncreative and dull (the opening hostage rescue in a guarded warehouse). Concerning the actors, Tom Cruise still does what he needs to do, Ving Rhames is as entertaining as ever, and Philip Seymour Hoffman's makes a terrifically scary villain, but the vast majority of the rest of the cast tend to drift listlessly through the film. Michelle Monaghan, despite being a key addition to the cast in theory (she does play Ethan Hunt's fiancee after all) feels more like a spare wheel, an unwelcome bit of emotional baggage that slows the pace of the story, Billy Crudup and Laurence Fishburne's characters are woefully underdeveloped, Maggie Q plays the same character she plays in every film, and Keri Russell and Eddie Marsan don't get enough screen time to make any impact whatsoever. The film always looks good, and J. J. Abrams gets ample opportunity to flex his directorial muscles on the big screen for the first time, but the main disappointment of M:I--3 is the story. It's flimsy, unable to adequately support the plethora of action sequences let alone allow for any sort of character development. Thankfully, the silly hyper-real facemasks don't play as key a role to the plot this time round, and it's kind of cool that we get to see how they're made, plus the filmmakers finally acknowledge the need for contact lenses and voice--changing software for an IMF agent to convincingly imitate their target (though it still doesn't explain how Cruise can believably pose as any other man considering his diminutive stature). Mission: Impossible III looks good and has a few stand-out sequences and a great performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman to offer us, but the lazy story and the addition of an ill-defined romantic subplot detracts from the viewing experience as a whole, and some of the actors simply don't look like they're really trying. J.J. Abram's film directorial debut is solidly O.K., but nothing more. Expand

See all 94 User Reviews