Mission: Impossible II Review

Mission: Impossible II is a 2000 action spy film directed by John Woo and starring Tom Cruise and Thandie Newton. It is the second and the weakest entry in the franchise.

The plot is just awful. It is non-existent almost and always typical and clichéd. This is such a different film from the original and definitely for the worse. There are no memorable moments here whatsoever and everything is tired, repetitive and even repeated from before. It is a basic, uninspired action bore that is difficult to watch.

The characters are also incredibly boring and Ethan Hunt is even weaker this time around. The newly introduced Nyah is so poor as this typical female character that is so forgettable as is the entire movie. Speaking of female characters, this film has such a strong sexist overtone that bothered me so much. There are so many lines here that are targeted at women and all are angry, sexist and so incredibly prejudiced and just awful to listen to. They portrayed women here as lying thieves who sleep with men just to trick them. That is such an embarrassing approach, especially for a movie made at the turn of the century.

The acting is okay. Thandie Newton is okay, if nothing special. And Tom Cruise is naturally the highlight once again as he is so good in his performance and action of course. But still, not one of them delivers a particularly strong performance and Anthony Hopkins himself is quite underused. I don’t understand why he agreed to do this movie as it is so clearly below him.

The action is the biggest reason why this film fails miserably. It is just so boring and so bad. None of it is memorable or unique in any away and some scenes just steal from the original which is so derivative. Yes, comparing it to ‘Mission: Impossible‘, Mission: Impossible II is much weaker as it has not one unforgettable and inspiring scene and all of it is more tedious and definitely more flat. I disliked this film so much as it is so weakly edited and directed as well and even that iconic score isn’t used that much.

Mission: Impossible II is a bad movie. It has awful and uninspired action, forgettable characters and some awful choices, but it is most of all just so boring to watch. It is the worst entry in the franchise and it is much worse than the already pretty weak first film.

My Rating – 1.5