So for the second movie in this franchise, they got John Woo to direct. I remember this clearly, because I had no idea who the heck John Woo was when the movie came out, but all the reviews were like “omg john woo” — it was the same feeling I got when reading stuff about Ti West’s X, except arguably I should actually have known who John Woo was.

But so what I remember about this movie is two things: 1) it had doves in it (even at this point, that was a John Woo bingo free spot, and all the reviews mentioned it, so it stuck out to me), and 2) there was a big motorcycle race/duel.

Both those memories are true, but also they are from the climactic final setpiece fight, and there is a whole-ass story here about gain-of-function virus research, with some undercover work and a heist and what-not before that point. Kind of a notable thing here is that up until that last showdown, all of Tom Cruise’s plans fail. The bad guy sees through the undercover operation quickly, he’s onto the heist before it’s even planned. It’s just a series of failures, which I guess is the movie trying to establish how bad-ass the bad guy is?

On the whole, it’s pretty clear that when this came out, it was a disposable action movie, and nothing more. Maybe John Woo added a little visual spice with his slow-mo and doves, and maybe the “inspired by Virtua Fighter” moves that Tom Cruise is busting out were pretty cool (if it hadn’t been for The Matrix being released earlier and completely upstaging this). But fundamentally, it’s just kinda there — even the signature franchise face mask things are toned down from the first movie.

But time has been kind, and now it’s a little more interesting, because it works as a transitional fossil: It’s at the beginning of the CG-era of action movies, when they can do things that weren’t possible in the purely-physical world, but where most of the stunts and fights are still physical, with CG only being used where it needed to be. And it ends up feeling like that — it’s slicker than the Brian De Palma-helmed first installment, but not yet as slick as modern action movies are. There’s still some weirdness and lumpiness to the movie. I see that the next one is from 2006 and J.J. Abrams directs, so I expect that to be slick and polished and fully pre-digested.

Recommended if you’re in the mood for a perfectly mid action movie.