After the huge success of Mission: Impossible by Brian De Palma, there will have been inevitably a demanding for a sequel of the movie. Usually, it will be expected to have the same director working on the sequel, in order to maintain the same style of the first film while expanding different themes and adding new characters, making the story interesting as well as thrilling. Instead, it has been decided to find a new director that will handle the new chapter of Mission: Impossible, using a different style and adding new elements while maintaining the basis established from the first movie. For that reason, the master of action movies John Woo has been called to be the director of the next chapter of Mission: Impossible, which will use his explosive style filled with unique slow motion moments and especially thrilling gun fights with a nonstop action rhythm, and a different approach of development of characters. After a long time of work with an amount of preparation through a unique cast and crew, in 2000 came out Mission: Impossible 2 by John Woo, with Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandiwe Newton, Richard Roxburgh and Ving Rhames. The movie's plot: The Impossible Mission Force (IMF) agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is sent to Sidney, in order to recover and destroy the deadly virus Chimera, while its antidote has been stolen by the disavowed IMF agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray Scott) who also killed the creator of the virus Chimera, with the help of the beautiful thief Nyah Hall (Thandiwe Newton). The announcement of the sequel of Mission: Impossible has captured the attention of the audience and the critics, to see how the result will come out differently from the first one. The movie, like the previous one, has been immediately a huge success to have also become the highest grossing film of the year 2000, by capturing the attention of the audience as well as the critics, from the beginning to the end, through nonstop action sequences and a unique style making the movie unforgettable in every moment of the story. The production designer Tom Sander has created the settings to be more dynamic, letting the audience feel engaged while being in tension for the most explosive moments as well as thrilling ones to look bigger than ever. The costume designer Lizzy Gardiner and Timothy Everest have elaborated the costumes in order to be bonded with the dynamic rhythm of the movie, in their shape and their colors to show the personality of the main characters. The special make-up artist Kevin Yagher has elaborated the make-up to be as detailed as possible, needed for the story to get unexpected surprised in the specifically essential moments of the movie. The stunt team has created the action sequences to be as dynamic as possible while letting everything around exploded and jumped around with a nonstop rhythm, without letting the audience getting bored nor distracted while following the movie. The director of photography Jeffrey L. Kimball has captured the dynamic moments in every angle shots and in every camera movements to be uniquely unforgettable, with also the help of the specific lightings as well as with the unique slow motion moments, needed also for the most romantic as well as dramatic moments of the story to be emotional. The editors Christian Wagner and Steven Kemper have created the narration's rhythm of the movie to mix the action and the drama, without distorting the result of the story to be compatible with the final result. The visual effects have been elaborated to add further more elements to make the movie more engaging and spectacular, needed for some of the most specific moments to be told in the story. The score by Hans Zimmer has been elaborated to create a different musical notes than the first movie, to look more dynamic and stylish by using unique instruments and vocals to make it also poetic. Tom Cruise did an excellent performance as Ethan Hunt, the IMF agent who is more confident and has much more humor than in the first movie, while caring everyone involved with his next mission, without letting anyone hurt his team, especially not to Nyah Hall that develops with her a romantic relationship. Dougray Scott did a well done performance as Sean Ambrose, a disavowed IMF agent, who steals the antidote of the Chimera virus after killing its creator, and will do anything to accomplish his purpose by killing anyone that will become his obstacle. Thandiwe Newton did an excellent performance as Nyah Hall, a thief who gets recruited by Ethan Hunt to also develop a romantic relationship with him, while being asked to play a game with Sean Ambrose, who had a relationship with him long time ago. Richard Roxburgh did an excellent performance as Hugh Stamp, Sean Ambrose's right-hand man, who will do anything to protect Ambrose even if he might need to use brutal methods. Ving Rhames did an excellent performance as Luther Stickell, an IMF agent specialized in computer hacking, who works and knows much more closely to Ethan Hunt to also has been loyal to him since the first movie. Mission: Impossible 2 is an action-packed movie with dynamic moments, explosive action sequences and unique slow motion shots to be unforgettable.
Review of Mission: Impossible II
