Mission Impossible

Mission Impossible has a few good elements that make it different than other thrillers, but its relevancy is 50 years past expiration date. Any movie with a minimal understanding of structure can make a story so involving that it becomes a thriller, but a competent thriller today has to do much more than just thrill. It has to involve itself in the psychology of the subject. Mission Impossible is about espionage, covert missions and the nature of deception. The film just has a plot so make believe and so badly handled that is just jerks the audience instead of get them to invest in it. An example is all the plot revelations. At the cusp of a new direction in the movie, the story will go back to show the clues that came up to get to this point, but the audience wasn't meant to be clued in at all. The characters come up with detailed explanations, but they are fabrications of clues and ideas the audience never had a chance to know. The problem is that the plot becomes explanatory and is a step away from coming up with any explanation to take the film anywhere. We're subject to explanation to from scene to scene. Drop this movie and watch better ones like Ronin or Spartan. Their plots may be as make believe, but they deal with the nature of their subjects. Tom Cruise is a charming leading man, but thrillers ask you take interest in the structure and story more so.