Men in Black: International Review

July 23, 2019 at 4:46am
By Jason Stettner

The Men in Black films were always fun, they weren’t necessarily all amazing yet enjoyable. With this spin-off entry things take a spiral towards insanity with a plot that feels as though it just skips along. It really did feel as like certain large chunks of this were missing. You got to see some really neat locations, but for a few minutes at a time to just push the characters forward.

There’s not a lot of character development, and nothing really felt earned in this. I also found some the elements for how things progressed to be a bit odd. By the end of this I mostly went, ok. That’s all, there just wasn’t much going on in this. There were few laughs to be had, minimal interesting moments and so much was being left behind.

Some elements were dropped, others came out of nowhere. It’s surprising that this came together at all, it really is cohesive in the minimalist amount possible. It had the cool gadgets, it had the aliens, even some references. It still didn’t feel like it came close to the movies that came before it.

There was something lacking here. The main characters are Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) and Agent M (Tessa Thompson). The two typically have incredible chemistry, but that wasn’t on display here. The latter is someone that is obsessed with joining the agency and lies her way in. She continues to manipulate folks to get ahead, and that was interesting.

The former was a world hero, but one that really apparently hasn’t been the same as is said three million times throughout the movie. We should have been shown, instead of being told this. It would have meant more, or well a little. The CGI quality really wasn’t too great here. They had some neat creatures, but they looked really fake and stood out. I also really wasn’t a fan of Pawny (Kumail Nanjiani), finding him rather annoying and unnecessary. On top of that, Riza (Rebecca Ferguson) was underutilized.

The Conclusion

Men in Black: International lacks a soul, being just a regular romp through some locations. It tries to hit the same beats, it fails at doing so. It has some talent, but doesn’t use them in a clever way. It takes seconds to figure out the entire plot as there are no twists or interesting things to come across as it develops.

The CGI elements didn’t look great, and while there was some fun, it didn’t deliver entirely. It was also wasn’t very funny, with all of the leads being too casual and jokesters. There was a lot of potential considering the main cast, but they didn’t exactly know what to do with them in this. It left a lot to be desired, and it’s disappointing as this could have been a bold new step forward for the franchise. It felt as though it knew what people wanted from the last movies, without actually understanding what made them so enticing back in the day.

Men in Black: International Review at Theater with Standard Viewing

Rating Overall: 3.5