THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
If there is anything that should be visible in Hollywood, a franchise can be made out of anything successful in one shape or form. The best example goes to the television series Mission: Impossible because after being adapted into its first film in 1996, the rest was history.
PLOT
2000’s Mission: Impossible II follows IMF agent Ethan Hunt take part of a whole new mission. He is informed by IMF director Swanbeck that he must recover a deadly virus dubbed Chimera and its vaccine Bellerophon. The vaccine is in the hands of rogue agent Sean Amrbose after killing the maker, scientist Vladimir Nekhorvich (Rade Šerbedžija) who injected himself with the virus in advance. He made the virus in the first place due to his employer Biocyte Pharmaceuticals wanting to develop it as a weapon and profit from the cure. Hunt is also assigned to recruit Amrbose's ex-girlfriend, professional thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall to infiltrate him. Both Hunt and Nyah were reluctant to move forward as they fell for each other overnight upon meeting each other. When they both agree to do so, the latter reunites with Ambrose in Sydney where the Biocyte laboratory is located. The day of the mission beginning, Hunt has hacker Luther Stickell and helicopter pilot Billy Baird as part of his team. And on the same day, the rekindling between Nyah & Ambrose pays off. While attending a horse race, Nyah is able to get information of Chimera, revealing it takes 20 hours for the virus to be dormant. By night, Hunt disguises himself as Vladimir to make contact with Biocyte CEO John McCloy (Brendan Gleeson). They have him believe he's drugged in order for him to reveal Ambrose never took the virus due to Vladimir inject himself with it. Knowing this, Hunt returns him home before planning to break into Biocyte to destroy all of Chimera. However, Ambrose disguises himself as his foe to trick Nyah to reveal their plan, after becoming suspicious of her during the horse race. As Ethan destroys the majority of samples, he gets into a firefight with Ambrose's henchmen. They reach a stalemate when the villain has Nyah retrieve the remaining sample. Instead, she injects herself with it and begs Hunt to kill her to destroy the virus. But the protagonist agent refuses and decides to retreat, promising to retrieve the vaccine. By morning, Ambrose leaves Nyah in the streets of Sydney intending to start a pandemic. He offers to sell Bellerophon to McCloy in exchange for stock options that'll load him with billions as a shareholder of Biocyte. That doesn't happen when Ethan infiltrates the meeting, and disguise himself as his right hand man Hugh Stamp (Richard Roxburgh) to steal the vaccine. As he gets chased away, Luther & Billy track down and pick up Nyah, preventing her from jumping off a cliff to prevent the outbreak. Hunt is able handle the majority of Ambrose's henchmen, but ends up having a fistfight with the villain himself, ending with the protagonist shooting down the enemy. Just as the fight reaches an end, Luther & Billy make it to Ethan in time to retrieve Bellerophon. Despite not retrieving the virus, the IMF still decides to expunge the criminal record of the vaccinated Nyah. The film ends with her and Ethan sharing a vacation in Sydney.
THOUGHTS
Expectations felt high after the impact made by the first film. While I don't deem this film better than that, I don't think it needed to be to become enjoyable. Director John Woo maintains the bar and is able to make what was quite exciting of an action film in general. From the Chimera shootout, to the motorcycle chase to the beach fight, all are well edited by Christian Wagner & Steven Kemper to the point of creating a ballistic viewing in the best way possible. And with Hans Zimmer stepping in as composer, you knew we were in a whole other vibe and you dig it. Looking back, I do feel that this one deserves its own set of respect because even this one is able to teach us another essential lesson. Whatever troubles come your way, don't let damage the motivation that makes you who you are. If you know you can overcome it, focus on that and keep on working until the job is done. Thanks to Tom Cruise returning as Ethan Hunt, you wouldn't catch on to it any other way. The actor continues the trail of commitment when not only rock climbing with the lack of a safety net, but also was willing to have a knife so close to his eyeball during the fight. That outweighs being able to drive a motorcycle. The commitment he does with the stunts again reflects what the character is all about. Hunt refuses to hold back on succeeding and is able to not let his emotions get the best of him no matter how uncomfortable he gets. We're still rooting for him throughout because even if he's scared of what can happen, he keeps moving forward to prevent the worst. It even felt refreshing to know he takes vacations because it tells us even those who make a difference need a moment to recover and digest what they've done. Even though he's better willed than everyone he's came across, he accepts he's not invincible. While he doesn't continue expressing that in later films, it was smart to show he knows his limits. And that is why he assembles a team by his side. It was cool seeing Ving Rhames come back as Luther because he's still he maintained his soft spoken and down to business attitude that led to Hunt relying on him in the first place. Even he gets in danger and is able to overcome the odds, which says a lot to how he catches up in having a strong will in getting the job done. I wasn't crazy about Billy, but I didn't mind him at all because John Polson had him presented as very chill whenever he chose to wisecrack to the point where there's no reason to dislike him. Because of his pilot skills, it's like if Krieger was a good guy and I see that as a good thing. It's a surprise he didn't come back in later films, but I guess some alliances don't last forever. Another thing to realize is that love can come from unexpected places and that's what happened to him when meeting Nyah. Thandiwe Newton made her a memorable character for portraying her as one who has her own set of fearlessness. As a thief, she enjoys the risk and that suited her because it made her brave enough to avoid being killed by the enemy. It was already a gamble to trick Ambrose to think she loved him when she already dumped him, but it only got bigger when she exposed herself to the virus, but it was arguably better than being disposed of sooner. It's visible to me that she and Ethan became so compatible because they both connect off of taking all kinds of risks. It is a shame it didn't last between the two, but it comes to show some things weren't meant to last. But I do think it ended on good terms because there's really no reason for them not to. Again, this wouldn't even be possible had they not shared a common enemy. I thought Dougray Scott was a solid choice to be Ambrose because he made it work in playing him as a more arrogant version of Hunt because he makes the best of surroundings for the sake of gaining in return. So for him, he's all about the money and is as greedy as he sounds. Because of that, he's too blind to think Nyla still cared until he was smart enough to look into it. Even when he actually had the upper hand, Hunt still caught up to stop him before it was too late. Last but not least, it was so cool to get a cameo from Sir Anthony Hopkins as Swanbeck. In his given time, he was another standout for being a boss that seemed to be understandable compared to Kittridge. Even he knows Hunt has done a lot of contribution within the agency to deserve some relaxation, yet still wishes he'd respectively give notice of his whereabouts when needed. I do think this is a cool film, but there are a lot of things that hold it back from being better. For instance, it is still pretty cool for Ethan to be found during his holiday when he didn't tell anyone where he'd be going, but how did they anyway? I'm sure the CIA had their way, but it's like a needle in the haystack scenario to narrow down where he was. It's funny shenanigans when the guards don't know Ethan was a security engineer, but it's ridiculous none of them knew in advance. I don't even see the point of Nyah answering the phone if it wasn't even hers. And how did Ambrose break her out anyway? Would've been a cool breakout scene to witness. I love Luther, but was it really a good idea to wear fancy clothes when knowing your first hideout is in the middle of the desert? It's like he was making an excuse to complain. He even one-ups himself by wearing Versace in the climax because it looked way too hot to wear a jacket in the day, the same goes Ethan on that end. Speaking of which, why would Ethan go to the horse race without a mask? I know they want us off guard when he uses it later but even if he was sure Ambrose wouldn't see him, he placed too high of a bet for his henchmen to not notice. It was even a clever whammy for Ambrose to pretend to be Ethan to get information on Nyah, but I am livid Luther didn't check up on her with the tracker until it was too late. He could've multitasked at the hospital. I'm even surprised he wasn't able to figure out how to hack the generators to prevent losing Ethan for 8 minutes. Ethan was smart to shoot the guard that had the virus vial to prevent Ambrose getting it, but it was still too damn risky because it could've broke since it's mostly made of glass. There was even a massive continuity error for the bomb that almost kills Luther. One take says he had 15 seconds when the following one says he really had 20. The suspense was ruined for me. And boy does Ethan have the best luck or what because he swings before he knew Hugh was gonna pass by the doorway. If he had another mask for another henchman, then that would be a wild revelation. I even have to feel the same when seeing how his shoes didn't spark a fire when his shoes were hitting the floor when riding a motorcycle. If a car can blow up after getting hit by a truck, would've been crazy to see the same thing happen with shoes. Other than that, this remains quite fun to get through. To wrap up, Mission: Impossible II remains a solid sequel for changing the pace to maintain my interest. If you loved the first film, i hope you enjoy this one as well.
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