Review of 'Men in Black: International '

mib_international.jpg Molly (Tessa Thompson) has been searching for information of the mysterious “Men in Black” organisation she crossed paths with as a young child. Despite having a dead-end desk job she is incredibly intelligent and finally manages to track down the MIB headquarters where she is quickly apprehended then taken in as a trainee. As trainee “Agent M” she is assigned to partner with Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) of the London branch. Soon enough they find themselves in pursuit of evil aliens and a threat to all life as we know it (etc, etc).

Sort of like the original Men in Black films except with less humour and quirkiness. What really made the original films work was Will Smith's outrageous personality and his “fish out of water” routine as he experienced all of the oddness of MIB – with the films making an extra effort to be not only weird but also funny and interesting. Here all of the alien weirdness is taken as normal and it just becomes an action flick with a bit of a mystery thrown in for good measure. Yeah, the effects are great and some of the familiar alien characters make a welcome return however none of the main cast remain, gutting the once popular franchise.

I think one of the biggest problems here is that the filmmakers try to do too much and in the process we lose any sort of attachment to any of the cast. The dialogue is minimal and they are left to wrestling with yet another bizarre looking alien.

None of the characters in “MIB International” are particularly appealing least of all Chris Hemsworth as Agent H who never seems to emote more than having a silly smile in all situations. Certainly agent M is no agent J (Will Smith), there is none of the humour and none of the spirit. There are wonderful appearances of both Emma Thompson as Agent O and Liam Neeson as High T but they are under-served by the unremarkable script with their formidable acting talents not enough to save this rather heartless reboot.

No, I didn't like it. A tremendous disappointment.

Rating: “Average, but who wants to be average?”

Review Date: 2020-03-15


Directed by: F. Gary Gray

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Year: 2019

Length: 114 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2283336/