Mission: Impossible II
Mission: Impossible II
With computer genius Luther Stickell at his side and a beautiful thief on his mind, agent Ethan Hunt races across Australia and Spain to stop a former IMF agent from unleashing a genetically engineered biological weapon called Chimera. This mission, should Hunt choose to accept it, plunges him into the center of an international crisis of terrifying magnitude.
James Saenz reviewedMay 6, 2025
“this punk put a hole in my versace!”
i was fucking ECSTATIC when i saw brendan gleeson on screen. then found out that his role was so small and that made me sad. HOWEVER, we get doves surrounding ethan hunt as if they’re his familiars, harbingers of ass kicking. john woo’s style is so electric, melodramatic storytelling oozing with charisma. from the slow motion to the frenetic editing to the transitions from the rock and roll arrangement of the mission: impossible theme to choral scores, it’s all so over the top and charming. and the actual action?? exhilarating. sweeping camera shots and hints of wire fu abound here. tom cruise is an absolute animal for the stunt work he does himself, from the free solo climb in the opening to the insane motorcycle stunts in the finale. i truly can’t fathom how he keeps managing to one up himself in this series and am so excited for what’s to come.
a lot of the paranoia and tension typical of traditional spy thrillers found in the original are lost here in favor of elements found in more standard blockbuster action films, but that comes with its own appeal. one style of camp traded for another. i will say that i much prefer the narrative of the original, and the first half of this movie doesn’t engross me once we move on from the foreplay between ethan and nyah. once we’re at the biocyte break-in john woo’s able to lock in and he doesn’t take his foot off the gas until the end credits, and i love how the final shot is reminiscent of seurat’s a sunday afternoon on the island of la grande jatte. woo rocks. dudes rock.
what i love about franchises where each film is directed by a different individual is it really feels like a microcosm of artistic conversation. art is political in the sense that it’s constantly a result of one person’s response to their environment or upbringing or another artists’ work, and so seeing directors in direct dialogue with each other within the framework of a series makes the developments of each entry feel more personal and provides more depth for the experience. you can still feel how they’re trying to suss out the tone and atmosphere of the series here, like they’re still unsure of who ethan hunt is as a character and it feels very experimental in comparison to the first film and i just find that so intriguing. i know once we get to mcquarrie he becomes the permanent director for the series, so i’m really just trying to absorb and appreciate the time we have with each director’s vision beforehand, and by god does john woo have the juice.