How others will see it. Things blow up, people die, there's an cruel bad guy, a relentless and incorruptible hero, a team traitor, a beautiful woman (two of them, actually) in need of rescue, a deadline that must be met against preposterous odds, and people outrunning bullets and smashing through window glass unharmed. In other words, all the trademarks of The Action Blockbuster are present. Mission: Impossible III is typical quality for its genre, and only you know whether this testosterone nonsense is your idea of passing time agreeably.
How I felt about it. Mission: Impossible III takes the unusual tactic of opening with a critical scene from the final two-thirds of the film, then rewinding the story to the beginning of the mission. This is shades of Sunset Blvd., which begins with William Holden floating dead in a swimming pool. It works better for the latter film, since we are curious how Holden got there. But with Mission: Impossible III, we see more than we want to: an unpleasant mixture of gruesome violence, torture, and bullying.
This sets the tone for the film. There's plenty of action and gritty suspense, along with a dose of mystery (who is the agency traitor?) and a dash of romance. It's generally intense, which is often a good thing. But it doesn't work here, partly because we suspect Cruise will get out of it alive to make Mission: Impossible IV, but mostly because we don't particularly care if he makes it out alive.
Mr. Piercing Eyes has played about the same character in too many action films, the semi-superman who can take out a bunch of guards even when he's handicapped by bondage, a slide down a steep highrise rooftop, or implanted poisoned brain pellets. He's the most heroic 5'7" action star in Hollywood history, but all that box office glory hasn't won him an Oscar. Yet. A belated statuette is still likely down the road, perhaps in a reversal of The Color of Money, where his performance helped legend Paul Newman hoist the golden trophy.