Mission Impossible 2

Predictable plot and a bunch of all sorts of stupid clichés (I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen a main villain aiming at the protagonist and instead of immediately pulling the trigger, he starts talking) that I dislike so much. Moreover, the Hollywood air doesn't really suit John Woo, the action sequences are rather lame for a filmmaker of his calibre (except maybe the final chase) and I don't believe Cruise as a super agent. As a typical brainwasher, M.I.II is passable in those two hours, but it doesn't impress with anything. The 550 million box office returns worldwide is a bit of a mystery to me. (01.05.2005)

Ethan Hunts grundlegendes Problem besteht darin, dass er seine Identität nicht zu finden vermag. Weder seine persönliche, noch in einem Genre. Als De Palma den Weg eines Action-Spionfilms beschritt, ging John Woo einen ihm doch so vertrauten Weg entlang: den Weg eines Actionfilms. Jedoch das Drehbuch mutet derart kaputt an, so sehr zugeschüttet mit Steinen und Trümmern bedeckt, dass ungefähr die erste Hälfte des Films ein vollkommen grauenhaft ist. Das Niveau der Dialoge gleicht der Ebene eines unbeabsichtigten absurden Dramas, die Handlung ist grauenhaft schematisch, Spannung gibt´s insgemein keine. Dort, wo sich der Zuschauer im Einser den Kopf zumindest etwas an der Handlung zermarterte, kommt Woo mit einer traurigen Zusammenstellung an Verlangsamungen oder mit Desinteresse gedrehten Pseudospionagerfilmszenen daher, die wohl selbst für ein fünfjähriges Kind nicht glaubwürdig erscheinen können. Der erwartete Umbruch ins Action-Finale bring hier keine Erleichterung. Abermals können wir uns hier mit Hunt in keiner Weiset identifizieren, seine Figur enthält überhaupt nichts Interessantes außer eines millionenschweren Blickes und schöner Klamotten. Die Liebeslinie ist nervig und naiv, so dass von einem Mitgefühl bei melodramatischen Tönen nicht die Rede sein kann. Die Wahrheit lautet, dass sobald die Tauben auf der Szene erscheinen, sitzt Woo wieder auf seinem Lieblingsdampfer kreiert abermals eine ziemlich schöne Action-Sequenz, die jedoch letzten Endes wie ein absoluter Schrei in die Dunkelheit ausklingt. Das hier haben jedoch alle Beteiligten in der Tat überhaupt nicht gut hinbekommen (außer vielleicht Hans Zimmer). (15.01.2007)

It has a very dumb script (even for an action film), a good cast, but it doesn't show anything for the whole runtime, so even a couple of pretty "cool" action scenes don't pull it out of mediocrity. Woo has no need for such useless and uninteresting films, and he's needlessly tarnishing his reputation on them. (29.04.2005)

From a negative attitude to a positively tuned tolerance to a surprised admiration. The way Woo reimagined the series is unparalleled, but we can thank him for the number of spent bullets hiding in each adventure. Lots of action, style or slow-motion scenes, excessively emotional dialogues bordering on B-movie romance, and Ethan Hunt in the role of an unstoppable Mohican. Everything slightly beyond the acceptable cheesy factor - and yet this part is the one I have seen the most. (12.05.2006)

Thanks to the fact that the Mission: Impossible franchise changes the director with every instalment, it retains not only its freshness, but also its connection to the current trends in Hollywood cinema. None of the directors works in isolation, as each of them fits into a particular period of Hollywood cinema. Whereas the franchise began to significantly foreshadow trends starting with the third film, M:I-2 now seems like a bitter relic of the decade that it capped off. The revisionism in which a Bond-esque hero falls in love is reduced, with typical ’90s overdone cool machismo, to a ridiculous fairy tale about love at first superficial sight. John Woo's excessively theatrical and gracefully formalistic style is freed from the charged fatefulness of archetypal values and urgency of his Hong Kong films of the time and becomes an unintentionally humorous quirk. It would be nice to celebrate the stylistic freedom and formalism that replace symbolism and formulas, but due to the combination of those attributes with the intrusive dickishness of most of the characters, the film leaves a rather bitter aftertaste. The attempt to make Ethan Hunt an icon of coolness further fails thanks to the futile screenplay, exaggeration to the point of parody, and the cartoonishly overwrought antagonist with perhaps the least charisma ever seen in a movie. Mission: Impossible II is now a frightening reminder of how desperately formulaic and self-regardingly bombastic Hollywood blockbusters were until relatively recently. Not that there aren’t still devotees of the tendency to make dickishness a priority in the 1990s or that today’s sophistication doesn’t frequently slide into self-centred masturbation, but Hollywood’s flagship films are now navigating different waters. After all, the latest instalment of the franchise, Rogue Nation, exhibits a number of parallels with M:I-2, particularly the “bold” villain and the protagonist’s relationship with his ambivalent female colleague. Thanks to the consistent rejection of the superficial and, conversely, the consistent development of the character, as well as the screenplay, which carefully straddles the line between fatefulness and dashing humour, it avoids all of the ridiculous ills of the era when women automatically fell into the arms of the protagonists and the heroes fought angry retributive duels with evil villains. (03.09.2015)

A fantastically directed action movie by the master of masters John Woo. The plot is not essential and the storyline itself is practically pulled out of thin air, with all the lapses in logic and screenplay flaws that come with it. However, the action is filmed so perfectly that one cannot help but forgive all the downsides. Woo has an unbelievable sense for visuals and colors (Seville, the scenes in the desert, the shootout in BioCyte), he doesn't miss any detail and puts an unprecedented effort into it. One example of his precise craftsmanship is the shootout in the multi-story building, which is simply breathtaking, not only because of its dynamics, but also the overall visual concept (sparks, lighting, camera). This is where Woo is truly the best, and it is the film’s main attraction. As the second and third thing that make me give it a full score, there is the brilliant atmospheric music and possibly one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. (08.05.2005)

John Woo knows how to make a scene impactful, but somehow he has forgotten how to make the whole film interesting. Some scenes are surprisingly drawn-out and tiring, which also affects the jokes that lack the right punch. Tom Cruise is suited for this role, but the face swapping was overly exaggerated in this case. The film is too long to truly entertain throughout its entirety. (07.05.2014)