Lost the excitement of the first one

Rating: 5/10 (5 June 2014)

A scientist at Biocyte Pharmaceuticals has created a dangerous genetically modified disease called Chimera. A person infected for 20 hours with Chimera cannot be saved, not even with the cure Bellerophon. IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is tasked with bringing back the disease and cure but he's not the only one after it. Agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) posed as Ethan and managed to steal it from the scientist. Ethan has to recruit his ex Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton) who is a civilian and a thief. It turns out that Nyah and Sean had a relationship and Sean wants her back. Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) is back as the third member of the team.
It opens with a great shot of Tom Cruise climbing a rock face. Then it pretty much slowly goes downhill from there. Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton have reasonable chemistry. The problem is that director John Woo takes a long time to get going. It spends so much unnecessary time with the couple and then explaining the story. There is the usual John Woo action touches. It's just way too slow. Thandie has so little energy in her performance and John Woo doesn't have enough big meaningful action scenes. There is still some good action going on especially that bike chase. The first movie was wildly exciting even if it was confusing. This one just lost all the energy of the first one. Also Australia doesn't really count as exotic. It is just generally a step back.