Men in Black: International Review

Men in Black was a pop culture phenomenon when it was first released in 1997. Since that time Sony has tried to recapture that magic and now they are attempting a soft-reboot.

Molly Wright (Tessa Thompson) is a woman who had an encounter with the Men in Black as a child. She avoided being neuralized and has been searching for them ever since. When Molly finally gets into the MIB the head of the agency recruits her as an Agent and sends her to London.

In London Agent M is partnered with the celebrated but reckless Agent H (Chris Hemsworth). After their simple protection mission goes wrong the Agents stumble on a plot involving shapeshifting aliens planning on taking over the Earth.

The original Men in Black was a revelation of a film – it was funny, had a great double act with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, some solid special effects, and moments of heart, drama, and awe. The follow-up films suffered from sequalitis. Men in Black II was the worst example of this as it forced a way to bring back Tommy Lee Jones’ character despite the face he had a resolution. All the films have the same basic plot point – there is a race between the MiB and an alien enemy to find a valuable MacGuffin. The biggest invention in Men in Black: International is that they might be a mole in MiB but his identity could be worked out really quickly.

Men in Black: International attempts to freshen up the franchise with some new leads and the hiring of a new director. But it follows the same plotting of the original film – alien menace comes to look for a devastating device. It shows a lack of originality from the filmmakers which is particularly baffling because the films are based on a comic book and the spin-off cartoon was inventive with its stories and characters. The Men in Black film series is underutilised by filmmakers.

Men in Black: International had a great concept to introduce a new protagonist who’s obsessed with the MiB. There was a goldmine of potential from everyone seeing Molly as crazy for believing in aliens and feel she’s wasting her intelligence, to explaining why it wouldn’t matter if she disappeared. The film does have a strong opening 10 minutes showing how Molly avoided the MiB agents as a child and applying for jobs at the FBI and CIA. Yet the film wanted to skip this character development so it can get to the aliens.

Tessa Thompson and Hemsworth had great chemistry in Thor Ragnarok and they work well again in Men in Black. Like their predecessors Tessa Thompson and Hemsworth have fun when they are allowed to riff with each other. Tessa Thompson is particularly impressive because she is leading a franchise film for the first time and shows she does have star power. They will be a vocal minority complaining that Men in Black: International is the latest example of the feminisation of Hollywood – that’s far from the truth for this film and there are much bigger issues affecting it.

It is appreciated that the film is an in-continuity reboot of the franchise. Emma Thompson respires her role as Agent O and there are references to previous films. It’s a shame that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones didn’t have a cameo, but the filmmakers find a way to get them to appear. However, the film does ignore facts that were established in the previous films. The biggest was in the original film first contact happened in the ’60s, but in this film there was an event in the late 19th century known as the First Great Migration. The other continuity issue was in the first film Agent K states that there was only a small number of aliens and the vast majority lived in New York City. But there is a 22-year gap between the first film and this one so there is a possibility of more aliens arriving on Earth.

Weirdly Men in Black: International is the third comic-book film of 2019 where the villains are aliens who can change their appearance to look human, meaning the heroes don’t know who to trust. It is odd how these things happen at the same time.

Men in Black: International is one of the laziest attempts at a franchise film this year. The writers and director were putting in the bare minimum of effort. The film will be popcorn fodder but its lasting power is no more than a week.