Japanese Mission: Impossible 4 Trailer Has the Right Music!
Now this is cool! It's too bad that there's so much less Jeremy Renner in the Japanese trailer for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (is he not the rising star yet internationally that Hollywood so wants him to be here?), but it's very, very cool that there's so much more of Lalo Schifrin's classic "Mission: Impossible Theme!" For me, seeing this footage (nothing new; we've seen it all in the American trailer already) cut to this music - the right music - makes all the difference in the world! (The Eminem song was not working for me.) In fact, this trailer now looks sort of almost like it could be for a really high budget episode of the TV series... which is pretty much the highest compliment I can pay to director Brad Bird. Speaking of, wouldn't it be cool if this one opened the way that Brian DePalma's original Mission: Impossible movie opened in 1996, with an homage to the TV series' title sequence showing a bunch of scenes to come cut together quickly with a burning fuse set to Schifrin's theme? Yes, it would. I just answered my own question there.
The problem I have with the Mission: Impossible movies is that they have very little to do with the tv series. I'll grant you that the beginning of the first film came close to the series, but after that, the films were reduced to a Tom Cruise ego trip.
ReplyDeleteThat works much better!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Bob - they're perfectly acceptable action movies (little more than a series of stunt set pieces really) if you like that sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteBut why use the Mission: Impossible name? These movies have never had more than a very tenuous connection with the series apart from - as said - a bit of the first.
Incidentally, I know that Giacchino is probably scoring the latest (I haven't really paid much attention). So that'll be another HUGE score - lots of noise and busy instruments and so on - that you'll forget as soon as the movie finishes. Just like his score for MI:3 in fact. Zimmer's score for II was just ridiculous.
They could do worse than use Elfman again. But of course it's not going to happen. But he understood the dynamics of the MI series better than either of the other two ever will....
And i agree with Delmo, much better.
ReplyDeleteOh, I very much agree with Bob, too. I've never actually reviewed any of the movies here (though I will do them all leading up to the new one), but I think I've made my feelings clear many times that I absolutely HATED the first movie when it came out, mainly because of what it did to the Jim Phelps character. I'd also prefer a team approach.
ReplyDeleteI've grown to like the first movie for what it is (and De Palma did give it some awesome touches, including that title sequence - and the basic idea of an IMF mission going horribly wrong), but I'll never fully embrace it because of that.
The second I thought was just bad on its own merits without doing anything specific to offend fans of the series. And it's probably the worst offender of the bunch in terms of turning a team series into a one-man showcase for TC.
The third movie I thought was an improvement, and at least MORE of a team film than the others. For that reason, it's probably my favorite - though it shares some problems with the other films. Why does there ALWAYS have to be a traitor in the IMF, or an IMF agent gone bad? From the trailer, it looks like even this new one sticks with that annoying theme.
That said, I'm remaining optimistic about this one. I've NEVER been so excited for a Mission: Impossible movie before - even the first one. I like that it really does look like it might finally be more of a team movie, and I really do hope that's the direction things go in. Now if ONLY they'd posthumously clear Jim Phelps' good name with a throwaway line like, "Too bad that guy who took the Phelps name after Jim left turned out to be such a dick" or something!
I did like Giacchino's score for M:I:III, though, Anonymous, and I'm particularly looking forward to seeing what he does this time around, reteamed with Brad Bird for whom he delivered such a fantastic Sixties spy homage (Barry, not Schifrin) in The Incredibles!
Yes, I agree about Giacchino's score for THE INCREDIBLES. And it was so much more than a John Barry knock off.
ReplyDeleteBut also...I do think it was far more memorable than MI:3. I think Giacchino's a wonderful talent but some of his films scream "Look what I can do!!!!"
Sometimes less is more.
But we shall see!