Men in Black: International (2019)

I rented this movie from RedBox.

OK, so I'm a big fan of the other 3 movies. I even really love Men in Black 3. I haven't made up my mind yet, but I might even find 3 my favorite of the franchise, even though 1 is the best film. I am understanding of the problems with MiB 2 with the issues they had in filming, especially the last minute rewrites they had to go through due to 9/11 forcing them to have to alter the entire climax of the movie. Most people don't like 3, but I love it. It's considered a bad movie but I disagree.

I can not say that about MiB International. This movie is terrible. The plotting is splotchy and a confusing mess, the twists usually don't make much sense yet you can still see them coming a mile away. The primary characters you can't even really relate to at all. First of all the political subtext is too in your face in this film, as they are desperately trying to paint Chris Hemsworth. Agent H, as pretty much the walking personification of the "Toxic Male", and it's way over the top. Nobody acts like that, and it's not the least bit funny. And then there's the main character, Molly, or Agent M. It's not subtle at all the feminist angle they are trying to force into this, especially with some of the dialog between her and Agent O. When made so in your face, it becomes distracting and seriously distracts from the film. For example, just look at the movie Annihilation, which is actually pretty much an all female cast, with an all girl team going into the situation and the movie following them, but never once is it made a big deal out of. And that movie is fantastic. It's subtle, so much that you don't even really think about the fact you're watching an all female team of soldiers/scientists going into this situation to save the day. But with MiB International, it's thrown into your face every other scene that this character is a girl and oh me oh my how she must struggle because she's a girl, or making a point to make the men look like idiots so she has to save the day.

Then there is the whole beginning to the film that falls completely apart. The film makers seem to have fully lost track of what made the first movie so great, memorable and charming. Some of the best scenes and parts of the first movie is where J is figuring things out, going through his training, outsmarting the other potential recruits, the pencil scene, the shooting gallery scene, his first encounter with an alien, those first scenes with K. And it takes up a good portion of the film as he is seeped into this new world, taking us along for the ride. It's very much an experience. All that is completely neglected in this movie. With Molly, we go through her backstory as a child, to her going through a job interview, to then finding an alien crime scene and infiltrating it, then breaking into the MiB HQ, to a very quick montage... if you can call it that, of her training and suiting up and then being put on her first assignment as an agent... and this all happens in just 17 minutes of the film. The pacing is all over the place. And her training isn't even training. Where in the first film we follow J along his journey and see what he goes through, to even his fingerprints being burnt off. None of that here. O says she'll give Molly a try, and then the very next damn shot is her looking at some computer screens showing Molly's scores and results as all top of her class. All of the good stuff skipped. Then with O giving the classic speech that K gave to J about the MiB and what he now is... is given to Molly as she just mugs for the camera in a suit holding a gun for 2 minutes. Just looking at the camera with glasses making faces and posing. That's it, that's all it is. The rest of the movie has similar issues.

Most of the humor falls flat on it's face, save for one character, Pawny, who has some funny moments and lines. He might have been the best part of the movie and he's a comic relief side character that shows up later. Though there was one moment involving a beard alien and some water that had me pausing the movie to laugh hard. But that was the only moment like that in the film. It's just not good, easily the worst movie I've yet seen this year. And I watched Howard the Duck for the first time this year... just think about that.

Mistake Status: I was too irritated and annoyed with this film to really look for any. I did catch one mistake with birds towards the beginning though. Not sure I'll come back to this but maybe. It'll have to hit the $3 movie bin at Walmart before I buy it.

Quantom X ★

Unwilling to let this franchise rest, MIB: International is a forced, mildly entertaining and unnecessary sequel that follows Agents H and M (Chris Helmsworth as Henry and Tessa Thompson as Molly) as they try to stop shape-shifters and a race that conquers planets by merging their DNA with the conquered. Blink and you'll miss cameos by the worms and the pug dog. Changing the location of the story to outside the USA adds some accents and a hint of a British sensibility but not even the inclusion of Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson can help this dry and tame tale.

Erik M.

Chris Hemsworth looks like a great guy: handsome as he is, he has an innate charme and gives you the feeling that he could really be a fun dude to have a beer with or something. That being said, he has much better acting range than the "hunky good guy who is a bit of an airhead" that is now his go-to persona in every movie. Here, him bumbling throughout the movie does not quite work, and manages to be overshadowed in annoyance perhaps just by Tessa Thompson's positively awkward character - if it was an attempt to write a 'strong female character', it should be cited as a negative example. Probably the poor script is to blame here for the lack of on-screen chemistry between the two: the movie after all can boast probably the most phoned-in plot twists of the year. I was not particularly bothered by the special effects not being top of the notch, I personally found them serviceable: it's just the story that does not quite hold up. Not a putrid movie and actually not badly paced, with enough mindless action to be not devoid of entertainment, but definitely deserving the underwhelmed-to-hostile reaction it got, especially as part of a franchise.

Sammo ★