Big budget action yarn. OK, but nowhere near as good as the first one.

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2003)

A sequel to the original espionage thriller, M: I 2 goes along a completely different style, but fails to live up to its predecessor. The main reason for this is that a different director created it. While the first one was original, complex and thought provoking, M: I 2 takes on every cliché in the book. In the first one Tom Cruise was out for revenge, here he's on his `next mission'. The sequel tries much too hard to duplicate James Bond and far too little on script and storyline. Let's face it, the plot is a complicated muddle from start to finish.
Tom Cruise takes on the lead role again but plays a completely different character. While in the first one he was a paranoid, unsettled and confused man, here he is a lot more focused, but overly slick and too much of a James Bond wannabe. Thandie Newton isn't a bad love interest, but doesn't do much to get past her one-dimensional demeanour. Dougray Scott is a relatively harmless villain and seems very inappropriate for the role.

The stunts are well done and the overall effect is good, but the film falls into much too many plot-holes to avoid. Many people have been criticising the `mask gimmick' but I thought it was quite cool, even if it was lifted straight out of the first one. Overall M: I 2 isn't bad but it isn't really that great either. A day after watching it you'll probably have forgotten about it.
The fact that the series began on a level of spy game paranoia and then plummeted down to mindless action nonsense really is a downer. Because of this, the film fails to be much more then mediocre. 5.1/10.