Review Detail

The Spence Edit is the best version of Mission: Impossible II, and one of the best fan edits I’ve ever seen. After I finished watching it, I said, “You cut 22 minutes out of this film? The theatrical cut must have had a lot of filler, because I didn’t even notice anything missing.” That’s a little bit of an exaggeration, of course. There were some bits where I was like, “Oh wow. That part is gone. But that’s a good thing.”

One of my favorite parts about this edit is the opening title sequence. Cutting from the plane exploding to the fuse lighting? Brilliant. And the title sequence itself is edited just like the title sequences in past and future films in the series. It’s so expertly done, and feels much more like a Mission: Impossible film to me than the theatrical cut does.

I think the new score works well and is more consistent with the rest of the series. But I must admit, I do kind of miss the heavy metal score from the theatrical cut in a couple of places. I know it’s over the top and hasn’t aged well. It’s just what I’m used to hearing when I watch the second film. It’s bad, but in a cool way. You know?

I’m sorry to say that even this version of Mission: Impossible II is still the worst in the series, but there’s not much you can do to fix that in the editing room. That being said, taking out as much of the bad stuff as you can really does elevate the overall quality of the film.

The next time I have a Mission: Impossible marathon, I’m going to drop this version into the playlist instead of the theatrical version. Great job!