I enjoyed this film in the theater as a teen but even then I knew it was bad.
The thing that bothers me the most about MI2 is how it's supposed to be ball to the wall action, but the action set pieces themselves are extremely poor. I would argue that the train/helicopter sequence in the first MI is better than *anything* in MI2. This movie looks like it was shot by a first-time action director rather than a legend. A few random examples that STILL stand out to me after many years:
- Ethan/Nyah car chase scene - Besides being completely ridiculous in the context of the plot, this is a very poorly filmed driving sequence. Too many quick cuts, hard to get any thrills from this. The camera seems to be the worst enemy
- Biocycte lab shootout - Nevermind that Ethan is trying to accomplish his mission as slowly as possible, but when the baddies show up and the shootout starts, the editing and way this scene is presented is just terrible. The camera cuts from the bad guys shooting to Ethan and back again and it's really hard to see what's happening. At one point Ethan shoots a guard who recoils like he just took a bullet in the face, but in that moment you see that Ethan actually missed and the bullet hits the wall next to the guy. Sloppy work all around.
- Motorcycle chase - Again, this was just a poorly-filmed chase sequence from beginning to end. First that jump looks totally fake and the bike moves in a completely unrealistic way. Once again the camera angles and time between cuts is extremely poor. There's no sense of where this chase is headed. They could have been riding around in circles and you wouldn't have been able to tell. I think the motorcycle part goes on too long and should have been trimmed down (and you know, re-shot with better angles). The final hand to hand fight scene is actually ok, though there's still too much slow-mo IMO.
I don't know why the action scenes in this movie are so terrible to look at. My best guess is that John Woo shot the action scenes as if this was a rated R film, and then when they went to cut it together they had to remove a lot of the connective tissue to get under the PG13 rating (hence why the camera seems to cut just before you see anyone get shot.) Or maybe the stunt/fight coordinators just weren't good and JW had to edit around them?
Nevertheless, I'm glad this movie exists if nothing more than to serve as the punching bag of the series. I thought Cruise and Newton had real chemistry despite some awful dialogue, I thought the score was...interesting (probably one of HZ's worst but it still has its moments), and I totally agree that Sean Ambrose is actually one of the stronger villains of the series.
Maybe I'll give this a Memorial Day re-watch.
The thing that bothers me the most about MI2 is how it's supposed to be ball to the wall action, but the action set pieces themselves are extremely poor. I would argue that the train/helicopter sequence in the first MI is better than *anything* in MI2. This movie looks like it was shot by a first-time action director rather than a legend. A few random examples that STILL stand out to me after many years:
- Ethan/Nyah car chase scene - Besides being completely ridiculous in the context of the plot, this is a very poorly filmed driving sequence. Too many quick cuts, hard to get any thrills from this. The camera seems to be the worst enemy
- Biocycte lab shootout - Nevermind that Ethan is trying to accomplish his mission as slowly as possible, but when the baddies show up and the shootout starts, the editing and way this scene is presented is just terrible. The camera cuts from the bad guys shooting to Ethan and back again and it's really hard to see what's happening. At one point Ethan shoots a guard who recoils like he just took a bullet in the face, but in that moment you see that Ethan actually missed and the bullet hits the wall next to the guy. Sloppy work all around.
- Motorcycle chase - Again, this was just a poorly-filmed chase sequence from beginning to end. First that jump looks totally fake and the bike moves in a completely unrealistic way. Once again the camera angles and time between cuts is extremely poor. There's no sense of where this chase is headed. They could have been riding around in circles and you wouldn't have been able to tell. I think the motorcycle part goes on too long and should have been trimmed down (and you know, re-shot with better angles). The final hand to hand fight scene is actually ok, though there's still too much slow-mo IMO.
I don't know why the action scenes in this movie are so terrible to look at. My best guess is that John Woo shot the action scenes as if this was a rated R film, and then when they went to cut it together they had to remove a lot of the connective tissue to get under the PG13 rating (hence why the camera seems to cut just before you see anyone get shot.) Or maybe the stunt/fight coordinators just weren't good and JW had to edit around them?
Nevertheless, I'm glad this movie exists if nothing more than to serve as the punching bag of the series. I thought Cruise and Newton had real chemistry despite some awful dialogue, I thought the score was...interesting (probably one of HZ's worst but it still has its moments), and I totally agree that Sean Ambrose is actually one of the stronger villains of the series.
Maybe I'll give this a Memorial Day re-watch.
