For this post I wish to focus on Mission Impossible III (2006, J.J. Abrams) one of the most indicative films of the 2000’s blockbuster action genre. 2000’s action films are frequently plagued by flashy movies with plots motivated by weak narratives of saving the world or something nearly as grandiose. Mission Impossible III (MI3)is an intriguing movie in that it follows most tropes of the 2000’s action genre, taking things to the absolute extreme, while still maintaining critical acclaim. One of the most absurd sequences in this film is when the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) breaks into Vatican City without a hitch. They manage to break in, kidnap a highly guarded arms dealer, essentially clone the man on the spot, and escape without so much as a hiccup of interruption. Everything went as planned and there was a certain beauty to it all, as if the audience was really bearing witness to masters of the impossible. I find that the reason MI3 was so successful was because of, in short, the premise of the series: an elite, secret, agency that goes under cover so as to prevent catastrophe from striking Earth. It is not their ingenuity in plot or narrative that makes the premise so brilliant; it is the fact that the premise mimics the entirety of the genre at hand while still claiming to do it better, to do it bigger, to do the impossible. The franchise took one of the most generic movie plots and turned it into a thrilling gem of a series, one that kept audiences coming back for more, and for that I commend them.
© 2014 Aaron Slater
