Enjoy the ride

Rating: 7/10 (17 October 2004)

For all who have seen the first Mission: Impossible film, it becomes rapidly clear that M:I2 gives almost no sense of it being a sequel. This could be interpreted as either a good thing or a bad thing - it's true that the sense of intrigue and constantly twisting plot of the original is lost. In M:I2, the plot is fairly simple, and each twist becomes clear far before it happens. But enough plot is still decent, as IMF (Impossible Mission Force, hence comes the franchise title) agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) races to stop rogue agent Sean Ambrose (the ever excellent Dougray Scott) from obtaining a killer virus called Chimera, after the monster from Greek mythology. To get to Ambrose, he recruits Ambrose's ex-girlfriend Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton) to rejoin her ex, and act as the 'inside woman' for the team. This develops adequately enough, leading to the necessary insanely complicated aerial acrobatics, which are strongly reminiscent of the first film, and a bone crunching motorcycle chase to enormous man-to-man fistfight at the finale. Not too profound perhaps, but for an action movie, it's not bad.
The script is very hit and miss; it's true there are some excellent and endlessly quotable lines strewn throughout, but we get stuck with a lot of overly dramatic clunkers like "We just rolled up a snowball and tossed it into Hell", which would be easier to overlook, had the cast put more enthusiasm into their performances. Indeed, Tom Cruise acts as if it was not his choice to return this time round, and Ving Rhames as computer hacker Luther Stickel is equally uncomfortable in returning. But Dougray Scott is consistently excellent as dastardly villain Ambrose, and Thandie Newton, Richard Roxburgh as Ambrose's chief henchman and Brendan Gleeson as a crooked industrialist working alongside Ambrose all give great performances.There is also an unexpected cameo from Anthony Hopkins as Hunt's mission commander Swanbeck, which would have worked better had he been developed into more of a major character, giving Hopkins more to do. As it is, he is good-natured enough with his fleeting minutes of screen time, and he's given some great lines, much in the line of M from the Bond films.
Speaking of Bond, when did Hunt turn into his carbon copy? In the first movie, the filmmakers worked hard to keep the two secret agents easily distinguishable, but now Hunt seems like a pale shadow of Her Majesty's finest agent. The love plot is handled entirely in the style of a Bond movie, cheesy innuendo and all, Hunt's relations with Swanbeck are entirely the same as how Bond reacts to M, and there's even a car chase through the mountains plundered directly out of Goldeneye. Thankfully, further into the film, Hunt starts to develop more of his own personality, but there's a strong scent of Bond all the way throughout.
The directing, which in the original was smooth and effortless, is sped up and choppy in the sequel. Director John Woo plays to his strengths here, but overindulges his fetishes for slow-mo and kung fu moves, making the film seem simply ridiculous at times. Even for a secret agent, it is more than impossible to take as much physical punishment and perform as many gravity defying martial arts moves as Hunt does at the film's climax, and do we really need to see a slow-mo shot of Hunt walking towards his car? Clearly, realism has left the building, (particularly in the end showdown, which is entertaining to be sure, but one can't help but laugh as Hunt pulls off far too many martial art tricks on his adversary) and it's more glaringly obvious in M:I2 than most similar action films.
But in spite of all my criticism, I enjoyed this movie a lot. Because it is essential, quality film-making? Definitely not. But what it is, is some good, old fashioned, BIG LOUD FUN. Our over glorified hero takes on and defeats countless enemies while performing breathtaking stunts to the sounds of a consistently excellent blaring rock soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. What more can you ask than that? M:I2 was a genuinely entertaining blockbuster which supplied all the car chases, explosions, shootouts and death-defying stunts to make a truly excellent action film. Who really needs all that other stuff, like story or script anyway?
-7/10