OK, so
M:i-III started here today, and as well as being in the screen over the staff room I also caught some chunks while on me rounds checking for phone usage, taking in ice cream, etc.
First impressions:
Pros: Importantly, the script is
much improved over the previous two, something exascerbated by the showing of
M:I-2 on ITV2 this week - had forgotten how misogynistic that script was!
Acting seems decent, Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a good villan and Simon Pegg makes the Hollywood transition with ease!
Haven't got much from the story but from watching the audience reactions and (lack of) movement it seems engaging and brisk.
Sound is pretty decent, some of the dialogue can be a touch on the quiet side but the range is impressive (and realistic!)
Cons: For a big summer movie, the colour depth is pretty disappointing, whites particularly don't jump out as they usually do with new prints of major releases (I say new to contrast with next week's UK release of
Prime, where the prints will have been doing the rounds in the US since October!) Is better in some scenes than others though.
Also exascerbated by rewatching of the immediate prequel is that although
M:i-III has plenty of action, JJ Abrams just can't compare to John Woo in that regard, with a particularly annoying overuse of "shakycam" a la
The Bourne Supremacy.
Despite some nice riffs on the theme, the music is pretty poor, especially by Hans Zimmer's standards, and the song over the end credits is just plain cringeworthy, embarrasingly bad!
Audience reaction on exit has been pretty positive, and I think I'd enjoy seeing the whole thing. Have a strong hunch will very much wish for some day a collaboration with JJ Abrams scripting and John Woo directing, then could have a film to really remember!

"There is no Good, there is no Evil... There is only flesh..."