FRENETIC 'M:I-2' SURVIVES ON ITS VISUAL EFFECTS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

Just how seriously can you take a movie that uses (four times, no less) a plot device best associated with the ``Scooby Doo'' cartoon series? Not very. But then story and character development are beside the point in ``M:I-2,'' a movie that focuses most of its energies on director John Woo's balletic, choreographed violence and star Tom Cruise's spectacularly coiffed hair.

This is less a sequel to the first ``Mission: Impossible'' movie than it is a series of Woo set pieces, most of which are impeccably designed and spectacularly filmed. Cruise's secret agent man, Ethan Hunt, returns from the first movie (along with Ving Rhames, who spends what few scenes he has anxiously shouting into Cruise's earpiece), but recognition does not in the least breed familiarity. If anything, this ``Mission'' is more confusing than the last, so you might want to make sure you bring your plot decoders with you to the theater.

Cruise, who co-produces the ``Mission'' movies, brought Woo in to make a ``John Woo film'' (i.e., lots of slow-motion gunplay and moody martial arts sequences). Woo tries to bring a little more warmth and romance to the franchise, but he succeeds only in terms of casting. The talented Thandie Newton, playing Cruise's love interest, certainly makes for pleasing eye candy. But she, like everyone else in the movie, is playing an archetype, not a human being.

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that. Woo's ``M:I-2'' demonstrates just how far a movie can go on the sheer strength of its visuals. It's telling that the most romantic moment between Cruise and Newton occurs at the end of a thrilling, high-speed automobile chase where it appears the cars are as sexually charged as the drivers.

Of course, the hardware - including obvious product placements for sleek sunglasses and powerful laptop computers - is the reason movies like this exist. Woo employs just about every mode of transportation possible in his sensory assault, with motorcycles, automobiles, helicopters and speed boats being a few of his favorite things. And when a motor vehicle isn't available, he drops Cruise through an atrium or into Monument Valley territory for some rock climbing. (The movie, at one point, has a bit of fun with this, with one character, trying to figure out Cruise's next move, musing, ``He'll undoubtedly indulge in some aerobatic insanity.'')

The screenplay, credited to the esteemed Robert Towne (mopping up after various writing committees), follows Cruise's Hunt as he tries to stop a former spy colleague (the bland Dougray Scott) from messing with a deadly virus. Newton plays a thief recruited by Cruise to gather information about the villain, who happens to be a former lover. This sets up a love triangle that echoes Hitchcock's 1946 classic, ``Notorious,'' although the story takes a back seat to Woo's transportation cavalcade.

It's impossible to fault ``M:I-2'' for its thin characters and implausible plot since Woo renders both irrelevant. But you can take issue with the film's complete lack of suspense, a condition owed primarily to its reliance on the aforementioned ``Scooby Doo'' device of having characters strip away face masks whenever the movie can't think of any other way out of the scene.

Never mind the logical leaps this requires. (Wouldn't the change in the mask wearer's stature and build - particularly when it pertains to a hero as diminutive as Cruise - be a dead tip-off?) The sheer repetition turns the ploy into camp, fooling no one (except, for some reason, the characters in the movie).

But then, audiences seeing ``M:I-2'' probably aren't deluding themselves that they're seeing foolproof entertainment in the first place. Brains will be checked at the door; a good time will be had by some. And Halloween costumers will be working overtime to find a way to make that mask thing work by October.

The facts

--The film: ``Mission: Impossible 2'' (PG-13; strong violence.)

--The stars: Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by John Woo. Screenplay by Robert Towne (based on a story by Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga). Released by Paramount Pictures.

--Running time: Two hours, six minutes.

--Playing: Citywide.

--Our rating: Two and one half stars.

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Thandie Newton and Tom Cruise co-star as action heroes in the energetic - but rather insubstantial and puzzling - ``M:I-2.'