Zachary FenellMission: Impossible
January 30th 2009 22:55
Mission: Impossible, 1996
Just like I have this weird thing about watching reinterpretations of the icons of my youth, I am similarly cautious about revisions of old television series. There are very good reasons for this, and Mission: Impossible is one of them.
In many ways, Mission: Impossible is right up there with Constantine: if you know nothing of the original story, it's not that big a deal, and you might even enjoy the movie. If you are familiar with the source material, however, movies like this kinda make you want to shoot yourself in the eye with a clown gun. The primary plot point that makes just about every real "Mission: Impossible" fan cringe is that there is absolutely no way in the history of ever that the bad guy in this film would ever BE a bad guy (and I'm leaving out the names just in case you want to see it).
If you ignore that little detail, it's not that bad a movie. Brian De Palma brought his beautifully subtle touch to the story and made a dodgy plot really work well. One of the earmarks of a skillful crafter of stories is to never truly blind-side your viewer: if you pay attention, you'll see all the clues ahead of time, but you won't be bludgeoned over the head with them, either. When it all comes together at the end, you almost [have to watch it again, just to see if it was really presented in such a brilliant format in the first place.
And it's not often that I really talk about cinematography, but this is a major part of how De Palma pulled off this coup. The frame of the scenes, the palette choices and the placement of the characters on the screen all relay nonverbal information that draws the viewer's emotions more deeply into the experience than they would otherwise venture.
All told, I enjoyed this little romp, but even with its "stunning visual effects" (such as, how the heck do they manage to make Tom Cruise look so tall?) and slightly twisty end, it was just another popcorn movie to me. It gets 3.5 stars, and would have gotten more if they'd managed to sow doubt in the ending that never should have been.
3.5 Stars
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