Review of Mission: Impossible II (2000) by Jacob — 24 May 2015

Mission Impossible II is a big dumb action movie done in the big dumb way that is only possible with Jon Wu. The direction in itself leading to tons of crazy gunfire, chases, explosions, slow motion, and doves in itself prevents this film from being particularly good but its frustrating when it is taken into consideration how smart the first film was.

The original film restrained the action scenes, minimalized the use of CGI, and a t no point was a gun fired. In this film there are gun fights galore, the film rehashes the iconic scene from the first film except with more CGI, and overall the film lacks any sort of restraint or intelligence in regards to the action scenes that the first film had.

The one interesting action scene involves Ethan Hunt being stealthy and for a moment the film was remotely engaging but then it goes back to the big dumb action Jon Wu is known for. Excessive time is spent delving into an excessive romance that lends itself to a plot straight out of Hitchcock’s Notrious that is uninteresting although the love interest is kind of hot.

Unless you like dumb Wu action this is a skip as it sh*ts all over what made the first film so good. At the very least though this film provided a cool take on the M.I. theme.