Mission: Impossible 2 - The Spence Edit

As spence made very clear in his thread, this movie needed a fanedit. So i was glad to read about his project and he didn´t disappointed with his work. The new opening fits for this edit despite not having the iconic MI intros (even though i like the original mountain opening).
The music iterations are seemlessley, some louder pieces are noticeable but necessary to cover up original track niose.
I like this treamlined version of MI:2 :)

My ony´ly gripe would be the overall video quality regarding the bitrate, but i´m kind of pedantic in this regard.

This is the one M:I movie I could never bring myself to watch more than once every 5+ years, if only to remind myself that it was as bad as I remembered. Spence managed to salvage it, but more than that, make it a worthy entry in the series. I didn't notice any editing issues, and the 13 GB copy I watched looked fantastic. Bravo Spence! Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Giving praise to Spence's work is like saying Santa Clause is jolly. We all know that!

I'm a big fan of the Mission Impossible films and I can't wait to see Dead Reckoning Part 1. So, obviously, I wanted to do a little marathon before that and I remembered the black sheep of the franchise, MI:2. And then I also remembered that I'm a member of this wonderful community and there's gotta be an editor who felt the same about MI:2. And to my suprise Spence was the guy! So, it was a no brainer, I contacted him, as always he replied very soon, and I got to watch this wonderful edit.

To begin with, my enjoyment factor has nothing to do with Spence's work, it has to do with the fact that I don't think this movie can be salvaged for me, especially since a) it does not play any part in the whole MI scope of things and b) we have five and possibly very soon six much better options, so I'm not missing anything. My actual enjoyment factor is like 6-7, but it would be a shame for Spence to bring down the overall score just because I don't like the original movie.

Technical-wise, the edit is perfect, I'm not even kidding. All the cuts were seamless, I could not tell if anything was missing or even felt off or something and the inclusion of the music from the other films was a much welcomed addition.

I really enjoyed the trimming of the over the top sequences and generally smaller runtime, one hour and thirty five minutes is just right and the pacing was much better because of this. Unfortunately, mister Tom Cruise has really spoiled us with all his latest action movies and I can't say that I will ever watch MI:2 ever again.

Be that as it may, if anyone enjoyed the original movie to a degree, then this edit will elevate the movie for you and will definitely be your go-to version for any MI Marathons!

Thank you Spence for all your hard work and thanks to anyone who read my review!

At about 100 minutes, Spence has taken the fairly messy theatrical cut of MI:2 and put together a lean and exciting action flick, that is more worthy of the Mission Impossible franchise. The editing is seamless, with the most impressive part of the edit being the soundtrack, which perfectly compliments every scene.

The franchise that almost died on the vine before it really started.

Mission Impossible II eschews the twisty thriller mystery plot of the first film for a hokey James Bond-ish rom-com spy action film. I honestly haven’t seen this one in over a decade (maybe since theaters).

Master Faneditor Spence tries to salvage the original film by replacing the dated soundtrack (Limp Bizkit!) with Mission Impossible sound cues (from across the franchise). They also cut away 22 minutes to keep the film moving and keep the over stylized John Woo-ness in check.

Does it succeed? Mostly.

The new soundtrack works wonders, really, keeping it orchestral and in tune with the rest of the franchise. Certain plot elements work quite well, while we lose the climbing sequence, it doesn’t add much to the film, instead we get dropped in the plot with two new openings (the plane and Naya’s introduction). It’s almost as if Naya is the audience viewpoint in this Mission Impossible world, it introduces Ethan in a much more playful tone. This tone threatens to upend the entire film, to be honest.

Other elements get to shine more, the reveals in the cat and mouse game being played (helped by rearranged scenes and removing villain scenes trusting the viewer to keep up and as a result being more surprising overall), the tension in the heist sequence is top notch as well, the action is mostly well choreographed (I hate the wire fu in this film) and isn’t hampered by too much slow mo and other Matrixy tricks that were of that time. Although maybe a tiny bit more John Woo style would have been appreciated.

Unfortunately there’s not much the editor can do about certain things: It’s so strange that this film went such a wildly different direction in terms of action, rather than the grittiness of the first film it went almost over the top like Die Another Day. And the core of the movie doesn't work, the relationship between Ethan Hunt and Naya is still weirdly quick. And yes the bloody finger feels like it comes out of nowhere, but it's for the better as that scene spells out way too much on the villain side.

Also some of the action feels off, as the visual trimming is felt and not as smooth, particularly near the end.

Overall the fanedit is replacement worthy and the best way to watch this film in the future.

Film Rating: 2
Fanedit Rating: 3