Review of Mission: Impossible II (2000) by Christian E — 23 Dec 2011

Hong Kong action guru John Woo directs Mission: Impossible II, the sequel to Brian De Palma's first, and in doing so, attempts to move the missions of IMF agent Ethan Hunt away from De Palma's original intent of a cerebral take on the spy action genre, and to substitute brains with brawn, relying on a less intricate story and more on the art of spectacle.

As such, Mission: Impossible II is a far more kinetic, high-octane action film than its predecessor, but fails in regards to delivering a sequel to De Palma's film. It's almost disconcerting how different the two films are, and yet how similar they are in terms of level of quality.

Woo is certainly a far more able action director than De Palma (who only managed to stage one good action sequence in the first film), and it shows, as while many of his action scenes are absurd, they are also far more self-assured than the firsts', and make the film much more of a thrill to watch.

The cast is also fairly good, and Tom Cruise ably reprises his role despite some rather noticeable changes to Ethan Hunt's character. Dougray Scott makes for a far more threatening foe for Hunt than Jon Voight, as his Sean Ambrose comes across as sleazy and dangerous, while Voight's character in the first just seemed too convoluted in motive to feel like a villain.

Ving Rhames makes a welcome return as Luther Stickell, and Richard Roxburgh also does good work as Ambrose's minion Hugh Stamp. Thandie Newton is bland but succeeds in the sex appeal department, and John Polson just feels completely forgettable to me.

The place where Mission: Impossible II fails against the first is in Robert Towne's script, based on Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga's story. While it is far less convoluted than the first film's, it is also somewhat conventional and lacking in interest.

It certainly upgrades in the action department, but fails to deliver as interesting a story. However, the final sequence of the film is outstanding (though a complete load of absurdity), and is stunningly directed by Woo and is an astounding technical achievement.

Hans Zimmer's score is also a rather large improvement from Danny Elfman's original, delivering a more rousing element and a more rocking interpretation of the original series theme. Overall, I would call the new plusses Mission: Impossible II brings to the series equal to the minuses lost from the first, and so, though a completely different film, it is about equal to the first installment overall.