Is this Mission: Impossible or James Bond?

Rating: 5/10 (3 July 2002)

Spoilers.
We see a car scene, not unlike James Bond's GoldenEye scene, then an... "intimate" scene shortly thereafter, not unlike any James Bond movie. Not to mention the fact that this movie tries way too hard to be cool, rather than focusing on the plot and character development.
First off, Tom Cruise looks awful with long hair. I'm sorry, but that just doesn't look like the Ethan Hunt I remember. Heck, Ethan Hunt is a totally different character in this one. In the first Mission: Impossible, Hunt was serious about his job and focused only on that. Now he's a woman-chasing, long-haired, cool guy who flashes a smile every thirty seconds or so.
The plot is actually as intricate as the first Mission: Impossible. I realized this when I saw the movie for the third time and really understood it all. It's not explained quite as well.
Now that I think about it, though, this movie seems like it has nothing to do with Mission: Impossible. It's reverted to sex, loud guitar and crummy flamenco themes, Hunt has completely changed, and there are so many boring sequences with Ethan and Nyah that left me very angry.
The music is absolutely awful. With the exception of four tracks on the CD (which are in the movie), the rest are soft, annoying flamenco guitar strings which all sound the same. It really makes me angry how the series went from a nice beat with great drums and action music to this junk. The main theme isn't even really the same. It's been changed into a screaming guitar. It does, however, sound awesome on the track called "Bare Island", when Ethan has presumably been killed but instead runs out and pulls off his mask.
M:I-2 is a completely separate story from its predecessor, which makes it that much more disappointing. I saw this movie in theaters expecting the impossible again, but instead found an overly "cool" flick with too much violence. Unlike the first, "Zero body count!", Hunt actually resorts to killing a bunch of innocent security guards in the laboratory.
All in all, M:I-2 is a major disappointment and I would not suggest seeing it unless you are a big fan of Mission: Impossible. Let's hope the third installment actually remembers that there were two before it. Hunt doesn't even seem to remember his whole experience with the NOC List... and Kittridge, who played a huge part before, no longer exists.
Like I said, disappointing.