Film: Mission: Impossible III

I thought that the first Mission: Impossible film was blummin' good. It had some perfect set pieces, a brilliant twisty plot and just felt, well, right. The second was less well received by me, my not being a big John Woo fan in the first place and certainly not appreciating his dumbing down of the franchise.

So it was with apprehension that I went to see this, the third part in the series. I'm a reasonably big fan of JJ Abrams (fans of Alias and Lost should hear some bells ringing in the film) so wasn't too worried about where he would take it, but I did think that it would take something really special to usurp the position of the first as my favourite.

MI:III (that can't be right) didn't quite manage it, but did give a damn good go trying to anyway. Thankfully it pays tribute to the first by reintroducing a reasonable (albeit at times, aimless) plot, but unfortunately suffers trying to play it out. "Not enough meat" sums it up pretty well, with the viewer repeatedly lulled to the edge of their seat in anticipation only to find that they've passed the moment of excitement without even realising it: Oh. Was that it?

Still, there are enough brilliant bits (and scenes with Maggie Q) to make this a good enough and watchable film. It's just not as good and as watchable as the first. But hey, we never really expected it to be, right?