Men in Black: International (2019)

I love the “Men in Black” series; the original 1997 hit is one of my all-time favourite sci-fi comedies, “Men in Black II” may be have been completely forgettable but “Men in Black 3” is (in my opinion) a highly underrated film. Despite the absence of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, I was very excited for “MIB: International”, it features a great cast and offers a wider glimpse of the “Men in Black” universe; so did this spin-off/ sidequel live up to my reasonably high expectations?

“Men in Black: International” was disappointing, there were undoubtedly some highlights (it’s definitely better than “MIB II”), but overall, this movie could have and should have been so much better than it is. “MIB: International” doesn’t do anything particularly wrong, no aspect of it is bad per say, it’s just very safe, very middle-of-the-road and very bland (making it very similar to “X-Men: Dark Phoenix”, another recent mediocre film.)

The only genuine highlight of this movie is its cast; Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson are effortlessly charming and likeable in the two leading roles. We all knew they would have excellent chemistry because of their scenes together in the two MCU films, “Thor: Ragnarok” and “Avengers: Endgame”, but I think it’s still worth mentioning.

The supporting cast are all very good. Emma Thompson is great in everything she’s in and “MIB: International” is no exception (even if she only appears for about 5 minutes), Liam Neeson is as cool as you’d expect, Kumail Nanjiani was a stand-out as the voice of Pawny and Rebecca Ferguson is fantastic (she should be in more movies because she’s always fantastic!)

The problem is that the characters that these talented actors portray are paper-thin, it’s clear that the writers of “MIB: International” coasted on the charisma and star-power of the leads. I don’t expect incredibly deep characters with nuance and complex motivations in a “Men in Black” movie, but at least give the audience something to invest in other than diluted versions of better characters in other franchises (Chris Hemsworth basically plays Thor here, minus the aspects that make Thor a phenomenal character.)

The action sequences in “MIB: International” are… fine, none of them were as exhilarating or as creative as I hoped they would be.

I think a big problem with “MIB: International” is that it is both too different to the original movies and too similar. There are very, very brief moments of recognizable iconography to please “MIB” fans, but there aren’t really enough to justify this as a spiritual successor to those films and, aside from Emma Thompson’s Agent O, no major characters return. This movie does take the series to new locations and introduces new alien creatures, but it doesn’t add anything inventive or bonkers enough to live up to its predecessors (there’s nothing as funny in this film as the Noisy Cricket gun or Frank the Pug.)

Speaking of Frank the Pug (one of the greatest parts of this entire series), he’s only in this movie for a couple of seconds… WHY?!

Finally, “Men in Black: International” would probably be described as being a comedy, the only problem is that it isn’t that funny. I did chuckle to myself quietly a couple of times, but there weren’t any moments in the movie that made the entire cinema laugh (there were quite a lot of people there, for the record.) It’s strange because Hemsworth and Thompson (Tessa, not Emma) were hilarious in their MCU appearances, but here they’re definitely good, just not as funny as I thought they would be, which is an issue with the script, not with them as actors.

To summarise, “Men in Black: International” is totally ok. I enjoyed it reasonably enough, but as a fan of “Men in Black”, I honestly couldn’t give this a ringing endorsement for other fans to seek it out. If you have some time on your hands, maybe it’s worth seeing at the cinema, but there’s nothing really stellar that makes it worth dashing to see.

2019 is shaping up to be a really weird year for blockbusters, “Captain Marvel” was alright, “Avengers: Endgame” was a masterpiece, “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” was just white noise and “MIB: International” is average. Well, fingers crossed for “Spider-Man: Far From Home”, “Terminator: Dark Fate” and “Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon.”