Review: Men in Black International

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

PLOT: A rookie MIB agent (Tessa Thompson) is sent to the London HQ, where she’s teamed with the branch’s top agent (Chris Hemsworth) in an effort to track down a mole within the organization.

REVIEW: Can MEN IN BLACK work without Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones? That’s the question that I’m sure execs at Sony were pondering after the release of MEN IN BLACK 3, which make a solid $600 million worldwide, but also carried a hefty price tag, much of which one can only assume went to star salaries. So here comes MEN IN BLACK INTERNATIONAL, a more modestly budgeted spinoff that tries to expand the franchise with two new stars, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.

In theory, this should have worked. After all, the stars worked beautifully together in THOR: RAGNAROK and the world has always seemed prime for expansion after relatively small-scale, simple adventures in the original trilogy. I always gave the series a hard time for more-or-less sticking with the same formula over and over (although the third broke from it by sending J back in time – the result being what I think is the best installment of the series). Watching this, however, I’m starting to get a new appreciation for what director Barry Sonnenfeld brought to the other movies, as stripped of his off-kilter sensibility, not to mention Smith and Jones, there’s not much left here to latch on to.

They tried to go bigger, by moving things out of New York and digging into more alien intrigue, but the franchise doesn’t lend itself well to this kind of thing. Compared to the quick, breezy, ninety-minutes and change other installments, this feels bloated. The plot is convoluted, the idea of a mole in the MIB is derivative of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise, and worst of all, there are no good jokes and the action set pieces are dull.

Director F. Gary Gray, who’s directed loads of good films, like FRIDAY, THE ITALIAN JOB, STRAIGHT OUT OF COMPTON and the F8 OF THE FURIOUS tries to give the franchise some continuity, by using Sonnenfeld’s preferred 1:85:1 aspect ratio and font, and reusing some of the old Danny Elfman themes, but he never puts his own stamp onto it.

This feels like an attempt by Sony to build a big series, so they went down as safe a route as possible. The humor is feather-light, and mostly limited to a very THOR-like performance by Hemsworth, who’s working overtime to be charming and goofy, but we’ve seen him do it before – and much better. He comes up pretty short in the action department too, as despite him being the “best agent” in the UK, he pretty much fails over and over throughout, with Tessa Thompson’s new recruit having to continually save him. Neither of them gets any interesting action and the stakes are pretty low throughout.

Thompson fares better than Hemsworth, as she’s got the better role, with her Agent M more like the Tommy Lee Jones to Hemsworth’s Will Smith than vice-versa, despite being the rookie. Still, the material is pretty thin and she doesn’t have much of an arc. The idea is that she’s long been obsessed with the Men in Black and has never allowed herself to have a personal life, but this is ditched early on, making one wonder why they took so much time laying that down as part of her arc.

The two still have solid chemistry, but MEN IN BLACK INTERNATIONAL can’t help but feel like a weak THOR: RAGNAROK clone. None of the supporting cast gets much to do, with Emma Thompson the only holdover from MIB 3, but she’s essentially playing a cameo. Liam Neeson, as Hemsworth’s mentor in London, gets a tiny bit more screentime, but he’s not used especially well. Neeson is always better as a hero than as an authority figure so this feels like a waste. Of them all, the ones who fare best are Rebecca Ferguson, who seems to be having a whale of a time as one of the baddies, a four-armed weapons dealer who’s got history with Hemsworth, while Kumail Nanjiani makes a bigger impression than anyone voicing a tiny alien who takes a liking to Thompson.

All in all, MEN IN BLACK INTERNATIONAL isn’t a terrible film, but it’s a very mediocre one, and worse yet, it’s dull. A movie like this should feel light and breezy. It’s supposed to be a non-taxing bit of fun, and franchise building, especially when it’s not done well, just distracts from that. Chalk this one up as a huge missed opportunity. Also, like INDEPENDENCE DAY: RESURGENCE (and the recent success of ALADDIN), it’s another lesson in how Will Smith is not as replaceable as Hollywood seems to think he is.

Men in Black International

BELOW AVERAGE

5

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