A comparison of M:I-1 & M:I-2

Rating: 7/10 (7 May 2003)

Mission: Impossible 1 is a movie about an agent getting framed and then solving a mystery. It's more of a Thriller than an Action movie. Mission: Impossible II is a completely different kind of movie. It's just like every other average action movie: Lots of action, not much plot, a boring bad guy and a good looking woman.
Mission: Impossible 1 is definitely a much better movie than M:I-2. But it does still have quite a few flaws. I often have trouble following plots. But after watching Mission Impossible twice I still don't understand all of what's going on and I don't think I'm the only person who has this problem. This doesn't stop the film from being entertaining, but it's a bit annoying. I think I understood everything in M:I-2, not that there is much to understand.
What annoys me the most about Mission: Impossible 1 is the fact that Jim (Jon Voight), one of the most important characters, isn't around for most of the movie. So his character didn't really get very developed. As for Claire, I don't think the movie would be any different if she weren't in it.
The characters in Mission Impossible II are more traditional. The villain is someone who used to work with Ethan but has now turned bad. He has a Scottish accent, to let us know that he's the bad guy. If Ethan's boss hadn't said anything, I would have never guessed that the villain and Ethan worked with each other. They seem like complete strangers.
My favorite part of Mission Impossible 1 has got to be the bit where Ethan and his gang steal information from the computer in that room with all the high security. I've seen it spoofed in quite a few other things. M:I-2 doesn't really have anything like that. Except Ethan Hunt retrieving the disease. But that wasn't really the same thing and it just turned into a big action scene with lots of guns. Stuff like that isn't very entertaining these days. Most of the action scenes in M:I-2 also involve loads of slow motion. This is just annoying and not cool.
Overall I give Mission: Impossible 3/5 and Mission: Impossible II 2/5. I hope Mission Impossible 3 will be more like the first film.