‘M:I:III’ peculiar and shapeless, deflated by Cruise

In theaters

“Mission: Impossible III” Directed by J.J. Abrams, written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Abrams, 126 minutes, rated PG-13.

The balance has been tipped and this time, it isn’t in Tom Cruise’s favor.

Going into the actor’s soulless “Mission: Impossible III,” what occupies your mind isn’t just the hope of having a good time, but also what Cruise has become – a pop-culture oddity, the butt of too many jokes.

Over the past year, the actor has been busy shredding his former persona – that of a private man with a few appealing quirks who dependably handed Hollywood the financial goods nearly every time he stepped up to the box office plate.

But now, in terms of his celebrity, his marketability and his credibility, he has done the sort of damage to his career that perhaps only someone like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston or George Michael could best appreciate.

Just as their sensational pasts will forever color our perceptions of them and anything new they create in the future, the same goes for Cruise, who has stepped out of the protective smokescreen of stardom and shown us exactly who he is. The image of boyish cool with which he once hooked so many has twisted into something coldly unrecognizable.

Cruise’s main problem is that all of the noise surrounding him is too distracting. Worse, he doesn’t seem much interested in putting a stop to it. We now know too much about the man to suspend disbelief when he attempts to sink into character, which is critical when watching movies, particularly one of his action blockbuster movies.

“Mission: Impossible III” is no exception. As directed by J.J. Abrams from a script he co-wrote with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the movie demands that we lose ourselves in a peculiar world peppered with bouts of silly intrigue, shapeless, faceless people who amount to nothing, and a denouement that really is a denoue-zip. Since we can’t do so – and since much of the movie is gobbledygook, anyway – the result is underwhelming.

Predictably, the plot is ridiculous, though not as absurd as in the first film, which was so dense, it turned in on itself until it became nothing.

This time out, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is such an emotional softy, his left eye seems forever on the brink of tears, while his right eye remains curiously dry, as if it were made of glass, not unlike Cruise’s new persona. Nice trick, particularly when Cruise’s left eye cries him a river, as it is want to do when an irritating little bomb, for instance, is shoved up his nose, and especially since the plot revolves around the abduction of Ethan’s new bride, Julia (Michelle Monaghan).

It’s the evil Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who is behind those deeds, but they just are payback because Ethan stole from Owen a nuclear device called the “rabbit’s foot,” which is never fully explained, and which hardly is as lucky as it sounds. Hustling along the periphery are Billy Crudup, Laurence Fishburne, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Ving Rhames and Keri Russell, each wasted in a movie more concerned with whatever slim intensity Cruise can manufacture for the screen. Some of the movie’s action scenes are well-conceived, but not one of them is fresh. Shouldn’t a $150 million budget buy more than just another bridge being blown apart? Perhaps even something more interesting than watching Cruise leap between Shanghai skyscrapers?

Given the interest surrounding Cruise, there is no question that “Impossible” will have a good opening, but it won’t be the $100 million blockbuster opening he needed in order to prove that he still is relevant and can rise above the bad press. It should concern him that he hasn’t pulled that off. What should worry him is lack of interest that might come later.

Grade: C-

Visit www.weekinrewind.

com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.