8 Reasons Mission Impossible Is Better Than James Bond
3. Mission Impossible Has A Guiding Creative Force
The last three Bonds have had three different directors Martin Campbell, Marc Forster, and Sam Mendes. As such, they all feel like distinct entries in a much larger tapestry. Bonds production company, Eon Productions, maintains a sort of unified vision for the character, as it has since 1961. But so far the Craig Bonds dont quite feel like a cohesive whole. The three most recent M:I films were also directed by different people J. J. Abrams, Brad Bird, and Chris McQuarrie. Though they lack consistent direction, the movies still hang together thanks to the singular gravity of Tom Cruise, himself a producer of the series. There would be no Mission:Impossible franchise without that strange man at its center. And thanks entirely to this series remaining successful, Cruise is maybe the last holdout of the traditional movie star. Neither star nor series can survive without the other. Cruise has long been the main voice in choosing each movies director. Cruise picked Joe Carnahan (original director of M:I 3) because he liked Carnahans film Narc, and subsequently offered the job to Abrams because hed enjoyed Alias. For Rogue Nation, Cruise hired McQuarrie, a guy hed made three films with previously. Cruise is integrally involved in casting, writing, stunts and choreography, editing, and marketing. The whole series is a big Tom Cruise machine, but the end product is consistent and entertaining.
