I didn't go to see any of the Mission: Impossible films until the fourth, Ghost Protocol, which received such accolades for a couple of its sequences that I thought, why not? And in the theater I thought they were pretty breathtaking. I don't actually recall any of the plot now, and I knew then that there were references that I wasn't picking up because I hadn't seen the first three films.
Some months later I thought I'd catch up and I watched the first one. I literally don't remember any of it now. I do remember it was a little hard to get interested in. I've never yet moved on to #2 and #3. By all rights, such movies ought to be good escapist fun, if nothing else. So why are these such a chore, I wonder.