Mission: Impossible 2

REVIEW:

When Mission: Impossible debuted in 1996, it was a slick, stylish espionage thriller that balanced intense action with a smart, intricate spy narrative. With Brian De Palma at the helm, the film leaned heavily on tension, deception, and suspenseful set pieces that felt worthy of the franchise’s television roots. Then came Mission: Impossible 2—a movie that not only abandoned the intricate spy-thriller approach but also felt like it wanted to be an entirely different kind of film. Directed by action maestro John Woo, this sequel trades in espionage for exaggerated action, slow-motion stunts, and dramatic doves, but in doing so, it loses the very essence of what made the first film special.

From the moment Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) makes his gravity-defying rock-climbing entrance, it’s clear that this is not the same character we met four years prior. In the original, Hunt was a highly skilled but vulnerable agent, often out of his depth and relying on intelligence rather than brute force. Here, he’s transformed into a near-superhuman action hero, more concerned with striking poses and pulling off elaborate martial arts moves than engaging in any actual espionage. It’s as if the Ethan Hunt of the first film was replaced by a completely different person—one who belongs in a generic early-2000s action movie rather than a Mission: Impossible film.

Unfortunately, the film’s biggest weakness is its villain, Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott), a rogue IMF agent whose entire personality can be summed up as “greedy and angry.” We’re told he used to be a top spy, yet the movie never does anything interesting with that premise. Instead, his motivation boils down to wanting money, making him an uninspired antagonist with no depth or compelling qualities. Compared to the later villains of the franchise, who bring either personal stakes or intellectual mind games into play, Ambrose is completely forgettable. Worse still, the film wastes a fantastic actor like Brendan Gleeson, relegating him to a minor corporate role that could have been played by anyone. When you have an actor of his calibre, why give him nothing to work with?

Adding to the frustration is the wasted potential of the plot itself. The concept of a deadly, engineered virus (Chimera) and its cure (Bellerophon) has all the makings of a gripping, high-stakes thriller. A bio-weapon falling into the wrong hands could have given us an espionage-driven race against time, full of deception and moral dilemmas. Instead, the virus is just an excuse to push the plot forward, rarely explored beyond surface-level exposition. The movie doesn’t capitalise on the paranoia or urgency that such a biological threat should create, reducing it to nothing more than a MacGuffin that lacks any real weight or tension.

Then there’s the romantic subplot between Ethan and Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandiwe Newton), which feels forced and unconvincing. The movie tries to frame their dynamic as a passionate, high-stakes relationship, but there’s no real chemistry between the characters, making their interactions feel hollow. It doesn’t help that Nyah is ultimately reduced to a damsel in distress, a far cry from the strong female leads that later films in the series would offer.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a John Woo movie without excessive slow-motion, balletic shootouts, and characters dramatically staring at each other before firing guns. While Woo’s signature style can be exhilarating in the right context (Face/Off and Hard Boiled prove that), it feels completely out of place here. The overuse of slow-motion, coupled with bizarre kung-fu-inspired fight choreography, makes many of the action sequences feel overly stylised rather than thrilling. The final chase and showdown between Hunt and Ambrose has its moments of excitement, but the unnecessary wire-fu combat and over-the-top stunts only serve to highlight how detached this sequel is from the tone of its predecessor.

Looking back, it’s almost remarkable that this film didn’t kill the franchise outright. Had the series continued in this direction, it likely wouldn’t have lasted beyond a third instalment. Fortunately, the Mission: Impossible films that followed learned from this mistake, refining the formula and evolving into some of the best action movies of the modern era. What started as a low point ultimately paved the way for an incredible resurgence.

Simply put, Mission: Impossible 2 is the franchise’s black sheep—an overly flashy, misguided sequel that prioritises style over substance. It may have the occasional entertaining moment, but it lacks the intelligence, suspense, and well-crafted storytelling that define the best entries in the series. Thankfully, this was merely a bump in the road, as the franchise only improved from here on out, aging like a fine wine.