Men in Black: International – Those sunglasses just aren’t cool anymore.
Movie Rating 6 out of 10
Family Rating: Sci-fi violence, low-level coarse language
When is a Men in Black movie not a Men in Black Movie? When it doesn’t have Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in it.
The original Men in Black was amazing and established great chemistry between Agents J and K. It was so successful that not only did everyone see the movie but they learnt the choreography to the MIB theme song. MIB II and III still carried some of the strengths as the original but did not have the same impact so it was not unusual to see the franchise try a whole new angle with MIB: International. Replacing Smith and Jones are Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) and Agent M (Tess Thompson) who had worked together in Thor: Ragnarok. Once again it is the rookie teaming up with an established agent in their attempts to save the world.
The setting for this movie is London where MIB has established an international branch led by Agent High T (Liam Neeson) When an alien arrives on Earth, carrying an enormously powerful weapon MIB unsuccessfully protect him and it becomes obvious that there is a mole within the MIB organisation. From here the story is fairly predictable with clues set to point you in the wrong direction before all is revealed, an hour after most of the audience has worked it out. The CGI was very poor for what you would expect from this big a franchise and the whole feel of the movie was that not much money was spent on its production.
While Thompson and Hemsworth work well together I found the Agent H character very annoying as his ego and outlandish behaviour was more like a James Bond spoof rather than what you would expect from a MIB agent. Another sign that the story would not carry the movie was the inclusion of the alien sidekick, Pawny. This little character, voices by Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick) attaches himself to Agent M and adds the little humour there is to the story. The other favourable cameo was Emma Thompson as the MIB Director Agent O. She came across as the one true MIB operative.
Men in Black: International isn’t bad enough that you will want to neuralize yourself after watching it but I would be surprised if the franchise continues.