I wasn't in the mind to dismiss this film straight away, but given the bad reputation that both the film series and Tom Cruise has, it would be fair to go in with low expectations. I tried not too, trust me. It starts very well gripping you with a interrogation / torture scene of tom cruise (what a start!). With the added depth of character given by the fact we have the main character unable ot help the woman, Julia, that he loves, i thought "ok, this is good." then that bit stops.
ah. Now we cut to a cheesy party scene where Tom is walking around, smiling, laghing and making us wonder why he makes all that damn money. Of course this scene is used to lay the ground work to why he loves Julia, but if it would of meant avoiding this scene, i really didn't need to know why he cared for her.
The action scenes were ok, but we'd seen it all before. A scene in which we have a helicopter shooting at cruise on a bridge, is a little far fetched, but hey, quite fun. Though especially during the first action scene in the warehouse i found the cinetography disorientating. Quick cuts mixed with fast beating soundtrack make for an overall confusing experience. My fave action based scene though is when Cruise is Interrogating Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and to make him talk he lowers him through a open loadinng dock part of a plane, in mid air, that was impresive. oh wait did i mention Philip Seymour Hoffman?? well...
He steals the film, but thats no real suprise is it? his performance gives the film an undeserved sense of credibility. Too be honest he really does push this from a below average action film to something worth a look. Though Laurence fishburne and Billy Crudup also push their game up to full pulling in fine performances. I also enjoyed some of the darker tones, such as the brain implanted bomb, i thought was quite dark in that it is done when the character is drugged and it's something you can't get away from. Reminded me of the explosive collars in Battle Royale. If it could of skipped some of the more cheesy or generic moments of an action flick and kept a darker tone, i would of been more happy.
All in all a promising start turns into your average action flick with moments of hope brought in from time to time from supporting players and Philip Seymour Hoffman is no1 reason to watch this film, so i make that about 3 reasons, oh well, its a hollywood blockbuster right?
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