They are a secret organization that protects the world from the dangers of the universe. They are the Men in Black. They hide in the shadows, wear black suits and throw on those sunglasses for special occasions, but they keep the world safe. Men In Black: International is a spin-off of the trilogy that started back in 1997 and hopes to bring its fans some fun entertainment along with a couple of laughs, but sadly this newest entry is just awful. It’s a boring sit through that will have you wishing you were re-watching the first film instead.
The world has been kept safe from any alien threat and even the aliens live among us. It’s rare that we would notice them but Molly Wright (Tessa Thompson) is one of the few to remember seeing these people before. As a child, Molly witnessed an alien pop into her room and, while her parent’s memories were erased, she evaded the Neuralizing process and was able to remember the entire ordeal. She then spent her adult life searching for these people who seemingly don’t exist. One day, after all her years of research pay off as she locates the Men in Black and demands to be part of the team. We see the return of Agent O (Emma Thompson) from the third entry and even a cameo appearance Frank the Pug as well, although they are hardly seen in the film.
Molly is accepted into the program as Agent M and sent to London on a probation assignment, which oddly doesn’t include supervision of her performance. She’s teamed up with Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) a handsome and incredibly arrogant high ranking MIB agent who reports to their boss High T (Liam Neeson), the head of the MIB U.K. Branch. Their mission is basically a babysitter assignment which turns out to be way more than they bargained for. The story then unfolds into a series of action sequences that are boring to watch, with villains so underdeveloped that they’re even more boring than the action scenes. Yet they always manage to appear at crucial points in the film without explaining how they got there or why they were there in the first place. The script doesn’t make time for any explanations that make sense.
The film makes plenty of attempts at comedy here, but it tries way too hard. My audience chuckled a few times, but no one truly laughed out loud. The film’s comic relief is Pawny (voiced by Kumail Nankiani), an alien whom the agents befriend and feels more like an annoyance than a source of laughs. It doesn’t help that International‘s characters are terribly written characters too. Molly’s backstory is too simplified, resulting in her knowing things about the MIB and alien technology without informing the audience on how she knows these things. By comparison, Agent H is only there is fight some aliens, shoot some guns and look cool while doing it. Unlike Hemsworth’s performance as Thor, however, H’s personality is far too arrogant to be likable and I ended up hating his character altogether.
Another problem is that the movie tries to be better than what came before it. Agent H is the best Agent period, no one comes close. Sure, there’s a picture which references the first movie but its barely even mentioned at all! There’s one scene that I must talk about though. There’s a moment where an alien becomes depressed when his Queen, whom he serves, dies. He has no reason to live and offers to kill himself in “the most painful way” and Agent H encourages him to do so. My jaw hit the floor during this scene because someone, somehow, allowed it to be passed off as comedy for kids. Shame on the writers, the producers and Director F. Gary Gray for allowing this scene in the movie.
Verdict 0 out of 5
Men In Black: International sucks on every level! It’s overloaded with special effects, the action feels forced and the movie itself feels like a rushed product. The writers, Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, have sunk to a new low. Their script is trash, pure and simple. Despite the good chemistry between Thompson and Hemsworth, this movie just sucks. It’s forgettable, lame and a waste of time, money and brain power. It’s not enough to say that I was bored watching this, I hated this movie and the experience. Just skip this garbage and watch the one from 1997 so we can remember why we liked Men in Black in the first place.
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