I love Mission Impossible II. In my opinion John Woo directed an action masterpiece with that film. But unfortunately we live in the world where critics have no appreciation for good action. Come on, Oscars for stunts are just now started to be considered. So... in an unfortunate set of events MI2 was a critical failure. Too dissimilar to what Bryan De Palma did on the first picture, they said. J.J. Abrams with his feature film directorial debut decided to fix everything, while still making a movie that action fans would enjoy. How?
People accuse me of many bad things for making a movie where kids go against their parents into dangerous situations. Apparently they never seen Super 8. One criticism I hear often about Super 8 is that the kids in this film are way too brave! No wonder Steven Spielberg is attached to this project. He made and produced a fair share of anti-ageism films in his career.
Conceptually the film is very much like Stanley Kubrick's "The Shinning". It deals with a parent going slowly insane and becoming a threat to the children. Both movies suggest a possibility of a supernatural explanation of the insanity. But the movies are made in such a smart way where there is enough doubt in those supernatural occurrences that you can read it as psychological deterioration only. Which is a very interesting challenge to a filmmaker. And young Spielberg pulled it off.