Director J.J. Abrams tries to bring some emotional resonance to the franchise, which up until now had all the soulfulness of a microscopic tracking device. This time we find Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt engaged and out of the field, at least until the shenanigans of a super-villain (Philip Seymour Hoffman) force him back to action. Cruise doesn’t garner much empathy, largely because Hunt has been an action-movie cipher for two films now and whipping up a fiancee for him isn’t going to change that. Abrams is lucky, then, that a movie such as this doesn’t really need emotional resonance to work. With a scene-chomping supporting cast and at least three rousing set pieces, it’s a perfectly respectable piece of summer entertainment (even if Abrams was aiming for more than that).
