No Emotion, Just Pimping

Rating: Null/10 (1 July 2000)

I find it hard to decide which "Mission: Impossible" I found more nauseating. Though I enjoyed the (rather predictable) plot and action sequences of the first "Mission," I could not stand the cutesy posing in the beginning of the film (almost purring, "Yay, we could be on a sitcom"), and the manipulated aftertaste it left once the team was killed off.

So, with this new "Mission," I was happy that we did not have a smirking ensemble to kill off-- It was nice, tight trio, as I imagine might happen-- You tailor the teams to suit the mission. Yet this team was even more blah and lacking in personality than the first team. Did I even care about the Australian member of the team? The helicopter might as well have been on autopilot.
Could this lack of characterization be because of this sickeningly sexual focus of the film? In the previous MI, there was sexual tension, but no sex. Just what an action movie should provide. But here, not only did we have to suffer through an unnecessary sex scene, but through a plot which depended on the practical pimping of the normally self-possessed Thandie Newton to Dougray Scott? Ugh.
I do not think John Woo is really made for making the typical American action movie. In John Woo's homeland action pictures, the action is almost family-based-- On revenge for a brother, defense of a loved one, creating/restoring relationships in the midst of violence, etc. With this state of mind, you can accept the corny visual embellishments, such as the glowing white dove heralding the arrival of the ass-kicking hero, the slow motion....
This sort of camraderie, intensity, or affection is totally absent from MI2, and makes such emotional visuals ridiculous. The embrace as Ethan and the bad guy leapt from their motorcycles-- This seemed to want to imply that they felt something for each other, but I could not accept this in the sterile context of this film. No history was there or ever displayed. The whole course of events is an assignment, not a labor of love. This may be said for John Woo's job as well as Ethan Hunt's.
Focused on sex, yet there is no affection to make you accept or enjoy the story. Dougray Scott portrayed the most sympathetic character in the movie, yet it all seemed rather affected.
However, this movie was more of its own movie than its predecessor. I'm glad it is trying to cut the cord between the movies and its cheesy TV progenitor. However, whether standing on its own merits or propped up by the TV show, this film was a disappointment.