Cruise Month - Mini Review: Misssion: Impossible - 2

It’s Cruise month

Mission: Impossible may not have been the most critically acclaimed or successful movie, but it made enough money that a sequel was commissioned, Mission: Impossible II. 

Attempting to put a new spin on the franchise is a new director John Woo (all 4 of the Mission Impossible movies had different directors) responsible for films such as a Better Tomorrow. Yeah this is the only film I know of his. Although he’s clearly popular in Hong Kong. Released in 2000 with a $125m budget, a significant increase on the original, it was another decent box office earning within the region of $550 million

The film was another that received mixed responses from critics, and some fans consider this the worst of the 4 movies that have come out to date. In terms of tone it went for a much darker tone ending up with a 15 rating compared to the original’s PG. But what does that mean for the story, let’s take a closer look

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is pulled out of his vacation to investigate a former agent named Sean Abrose. Disguised as Hunt, he had been tasked with escorting a doctor from Australia into the states. He’d been infected with a virus called Chimera but was also carrying the antidote. Ethan is instructed to take 2 agents of his choice, Billy Baird (John Polson) and of course Luther (reprised by Ving Rhames) but must also take on thief Nyah Nordolf-Hall (Thandie Newton) as her prior relationship with Sean could prove invaluable   

She’s sent to try and pry information from him, and discovers the conspiracy to deliberately unleash the virus in order to profit selling the antidote. She is soon discovered and taken to the lab holding the virus as Ethan arrives to destroy it. Nyah ends up injecting herself with the virus, and it’s a race against time to find the antidote as in 20 hours her body well be dust and the virus can spread to others.

The plot seems to have 2 stages. The first hour is almost entirely plot with very little action, whilst the second hour is mostly action with very little plot. Uneven pacing is a problem with this sort of movie but to be honest the first one was more successful despite some of the more drawn out scenes.

Some of the dialogue needed some brushing up. A joke regarding telling the IMF about a vacation destination would lead to it not being a vacation is brought up 3 times during the course of the movie, twice by the same guy who advised to tell them in the first place!

Nyah is the greatest missed opportunity of the movie. Whilst her skills in pickpocketing are exploited as we approach the half-way mark of the movie. She rarely demonstrates any skills as a thief at all and as largely reduced to the damsel in distress role by the time the film reaches its climax.

The plot itself is fairly cliché, unleashing a disease to make money from a cure is a fairly standard plot-thread and I’d expect a bit more if I’m honest from a series like this.

The action itself is actually quite lacklustre this time round. Of the 3 fight scenes in the movie, the first is shot in the dark and barely visible. The second is filled with random explosions and unnecessary bike stunts and wire work (seriously, why did the driver just do a stunt where he flies over Ethan) and the final fight also has unnecessary wire work making the fight seem goofy.

There’s no real character development either. Ethan and Nyah are almost instantly in a relationship (which is never brought up again in subsequent movies) and Luther, Ethan and Billy hardly interact at all. The relationships between the two villains hardly matter in the grand scheme of things, which is a pity considering how one of them comes to their ultimate end.

It’s another movie that isn’t great but it isn’t terrible either, most of the main actors are pretty good, the plot is engaging if simple and it’s visually nice to look at. Just wish the plot had maybe a little more added to it.

Rating 40/100

For more reviews click here

Images used in this review are from Mission: Impossible - 2  and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.