Dhoom 2 is a mindless popcorn flick that asks for your brain at the door and hands it back 3 hours later when you leave, hoping you had a good time in between. I was amused more than once and I can appreciate several things in the film. But in the end the hard reality and number one rule of good film making is and always will be (and that really needs to sink in more in Bollywood): A GOOD FILM STARTS WITH A GOOD SCRIPT, EVEN IF ITS ONLY AIM IS CAREFREE ENTERTAINMENT FOR 3 HOURS. Dhoom 2's script is simply very half baked, full of plot holes so big the usual disclaimers for fantasy action fare are stretched too thin here and it becomes annoying. What should be a gripping tale of the psychology of cop and robber sprinkled with sleek action and display of technology (in the film and making the film) degrades into standard formula fare with unnecessary songs, forced comic routines, abrupt and unmotivated sight seeing orgies, and replacement of a main character. Let's ignore the heavy inspiration from many Hollywood films. That's not the main problem. The interference of the Bollywood formula and weak script is. Not all is bad, though, some parts are well done and in a better film would fit in very nicely. The Russian roulette scene is the emotional core of the film and delivers, ending included (bravo for going against the formula here). The statue scene is cool as well (unrealistic but in a way one can smilingly accept, l'art pour l'art). The Queen act at the beginning, unexpected, hilarious (the action afterwards less so). And this of course brings us to the main asset of the film, this Indian A list actor (and I mean international A list as far as potential is concerned) whose publicly announced goal is to lift commercial Hindi cinema to an international quality level so it can cross over, stuck in another local B grade effort (by international standards) limiting his impact: The one and only HRITHIK ROSHAN. He carries the film from start to finish and it hurts to see him work his ass off and exude more charisma with one finger than the whole cast of most films do with all they got, just to be let down by shoddy scripting and stylistic choices that might impress in some quarters but definitely not at others where international product is well known and fighting it out for market share with Hollywood. The rest of the cast is OK. Aishwarya and Hrithik are eye candy of the highest caliber. Abhishek, Uday and the rest have not really got roles though. 2 of the songs should be cut right away. 3 others are good. Film is well shot, stunts are OK although highly unrealistic most of the time and the fact many of them are really done by Hrithik himself is not obvious enough. He trains for 3 months and it's over in 3 seconds. Hm. See it if you like Ash and Hrithik, do not expect much and you will likely be impressed by some of it. 4 points for the film and 2 extra for Mr. Roshan. (By the way, Hrithik is NOT playing his first villain in this film as claimed in the promotions. He's not anymore a villain than Robin Hood. He's the hero of the film which you cheer on and want to succeed. If Robin Hood is a villain then Hrithik was a villain before in Fiza and Mission Kashmir).