At Least It's Less Pretentious

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2015)

One thing I couldn't stand about the first Mission: Impossible is how it was trying to seem really complex - especially with the motif of the bible verse and how Ethan Hunt inexplicably knew how to contact his enemy - when it was really just a simple action film. This film is simple and knows it, making it easier to just enjoy for the ride. Sometimes simplicity (at least in plot) is just more fitting, and I think it is the case for this franchise of movies.
The plot is literally just what the plot section on this movie's IMDb page says, so there you have it. Once you get past that you can enjoy the film.
As in the first film, I'm not sure how the filmmakers pull off the sequences involving the elaborate masks, but it is a pretty brilliant effect whether it is CGI (when they remove the mask) or if it is an actual mask - it is so hard to tell. One plot hole though for this movie: how do the enemies have the exact same elaborate- mask-making technology as the spy agency which Ethan Hunt works for?
I find this film a little more fun than the first, but it is also filled with more clichés in my opinion. We have a woman on Hunt's side acting as a double agent to gain the villain's trust, we have villains who want to create an epidemic for profit (granted I don't know when this story element originated) and there is almost too much slow motion used in this movie - and it's the type where they didn't even to bother trying to put it into 24fps as modern slow- motion works in film.
An okay action film just barely better than the first, which doesn't say much. I hope I'll enjoy 3 and 4 more when I rewatch them - I had never seen numbers 1 and 2 before, strange I know.