After falling for flix at an impressionable age but ultimately deciding to forgo a shot at the biz I became a working stiff and dad - no regrets. But when the End Times come and I stumble through the gate of that compound you’ll establish for us refugees it will be because I trust you to tell me what I missed.
I appreciate it, Tim. I know my tastes are strongly oriented to my age and experience, and I try to maintain consistency, so anyone who reads my stuff can look at a review and think, "Well, Mark isn't very objective when it comes to dinosaurs, but he also said the plot is pretty basic, so I think I can give this one a skip." That's the best relationship to have with a critic, knowing their preferences and their biases in conjunction with your own.
We saw the latest MI this past Thursday. We enjoyed it, though it seemed it fell back into the "main hero saves everything" trope rather than the emphasis on the team. I admit, I wouldn't watch a MI for years because when I heard what they did with Jim Phelps in the first one, I took it as an insult to every fan of the original series. And to this day I haven't watched it, and never will. My one main fault in this one is that it circles back to that one. However, Martha, ever the action flick fan (whereas I'm more of the romcom fan, though I also enjoy action), finally got me to start watching with the 4th one I think, and I've quite enjoyed the series. I just wish someone would grab Cruise and deprogram that gullible brain of his.
I get it, I really do! I really liked M:I 3 for Phillip Seymour Hoffmann's turn as a villain. And I agree with you re: the "savior" cliche, but I think they did a good job of mitigating that by addressing him as a disruptor rather than a hero. I liked the comment Phelps Jr says to him about how none of his deeds involved following orders, in fact, just the opposite.
I want to go back and rewatch them all now, to see how much McQuarrie pulled from the first few. It was a huge betrayal, indeed, and Kittridge was a poor substitute for Phelps since they primarily used him as a foil. That aspect of the movies was really dissatisfying, moving Cruise into the role of team leader. I get why. It's a way to tighten up the cast, the story, the plot, all of that stuff. But Jim getting a tape that self-destructs and then assembling his team was the touchstone we needed and never got.
I think the first two don't work as M:I movies because they were trying to re-invent the series, only to find that they didn't have to redo it; they just had to evolve the idea.
After falling for flix at an impressionable age but ultimately deciding to forgo a shot at the biz I became a working stiff and dad - no regrets. But when the End Times come and I stumble through the gate of that compound you’ll establish for us refugees it will be because I trust you to tell me what I missed.
I appreciate it, Tim. I know my tastes are strongly oriented to my age and experience, and I try to maintain consistency, so anyone who reads my stuff can look at a review and think, "Well, Mark isn't very objective when it comes to dinosaurs, but he also said the plot is pretty basic, so I think I can give this one a skip." That's the best relationship to have with a critic, knowing their preferences and their biases in conjunction with your own.
We saw the latest MI this past Thursday. We enjoyed it, though it seemed it fell back into the "main hero saves everything" trope rather than the emphasis on the team. I admit, I wouldn't watch a MI for years because when I heard what they did with Jim Phelps in the first one, I took it as an insult to every fan of the original series. And to this day I haven't watched it, and never will. My one main fault in this one is that it circles back to that one. However, Martha, ever the action flick fan (whereas I'm more of the romcom fan, though I also enjoy action), finally got me to start watching with the 4th one I think, and I've quite enjoyed the series. I just wish someone would grab Cruise and deprogram that gullible brain of his.
I get it, I really do! I really liked M:I 3 for Phillip Seymour Hoffmann's turn as a villain. And I agree with you re: the "savior" cliche, but I think they did a good job of mitigating that by addressing him as a disruptor rather than a hero. I liked the comment Phelps Jr says to him about how none of his deeds involved following orders, in fact, just the opposite.
I want to go back and rewatch them all now, to see how much McQuarrie pulled from the first few. It was a huge betrayal, indeed, and Kittridge was a poor substitute for Phelps since they primarily used him as a foil. That aspect of the movies was really dissatisfying, moving Cruise into the role of team leader. I get why. It's a way to tighten up the cast, the story, the plot, all of that stuff. But Jim getting a tape that self-destructs and then assembling his team was the touchstone we needed and never got.
I think the first two don't work as M:I movies because they were trying to re-invent the series, only to find that they didn't have to redo it; they just had to evolve the idea.