MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL Review

From the outset of director F. Gary Gray's (Straight Outta Compton, The Fate of the Furious) Men in Black re-boot one can gauge there is a certain indifference to the project and if not necessarily an indifference, but a lack of creative care towards the film. This can be gleaned from nothing more than the opening credits which only goes so far as to ape the font of the original without bothering to try and emulate the objective. The opening credit sequences of the Barry Sonnenfeld trilogy would each attempt to emphasize perspective in this world in which the Men in Black existed, whether it be seeing said world through the eyes of a flying "bug" or by actually playing with perspective so as to upend expectations and re-enforce that not everything is as it seems and furthermore, not everything is as we might assume. I recall these opening credit sequences because not only did they play into the story the rest of the movie would be telling, but they played into the themes of the whole series: that this, our world-no matter how big and alone it might seem to us at times, is actually only a small part of a much grander scheme. The majority of the first three MIB films take place in and around New York City and yet they do their best to emphasize time and time again how vast the universe is outside of themselves even if what is happening within the events of the film might have epic repercussions on this, our third rock from the sun. With MIB: International, despite going bigger in terms of operating on a global scale the film can't help but to feel much smaller-especially in comparison to that original film-both in terms of scale as well as its ideas. This is to say, the seemingly carefully plotted opening credits of the previous films are no more and have instead been replaced with text over the movie just as it would have played were the opening credits not present at all. This may feel rather finicky, but as it is noted that Gray and his team took little time to consider the legacy of the franchise and the little details that made the original so special-and more importantly, work as well as it did-it only makes it more clear as to why there isn't necessarily any care taken to carry said legacy forward in any meaningful way. Rather, MIB: International ends up feeling like exactly what it is: a rushed and uninspired riff on a proven formula that cares more about the how it's been received in the past as opposed to the why it was received that way in the first place.

First Trailer for MIB: INTERNATIONAL Starring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson

In my mind, this was never going to work-the idea that one could carry on what Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith created in the original Men In Black and then botched in unforgivable ways with the sequel, but somewhat redeemed with the ten year-later sequel that used a time travel bit to its advantage and turned out to be a hell of a lot of fun. One could say that I might put that original film in my top ten favorite (key word: favorite) movies of all time given I was ten when I first experienced the film and can clearly remember thinking how flat-out good of a movie it was-from every facet: the story, the comedy, the characters, the look, the score-everything was great in a full-on entertaining fashion that accomplished its job in spades. Needless to say, the idea of re-booting the franchise without either of the original trilogies stars seemed like a bad idea, but leave it to Sony to prove me wrong once again after they destroyed my preconceived notion that the last thing we needed right now was another Spider-Man movie, let alone an animated one. With MIB: International the studio has enlisted young and hip commodities like Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thomspon to re-vitalize and refresh the brand while keeping ties open to the original by having Emma Thompson reprise her role as Agent O from the third film. Smith and Jones get a nod in a mural that graces the halls of MIB headquarters, but this is very clearly not a film intent on re-hashing characters or circumstances from the original outside of silly alien designs and outrageous shiny weapons. As far as the story is concerned though, it seems this new film will deal with a mole in the Men In Black organization. Given the film has been written by the guys who penned the last Transformers movie as well as Iron Man it's anyone's guess as to how good or bad the Men In Black twist on this premise might be, but Straight Outta Compton and Fate of the Furious director, F. Gary Gray, hopefully has enough style up his sleeve to make some if not most of this feel substantial as well. Men In Black: International also stars Rebecca Ferguson, Kumail Najiani, Rafe Spall, Laurent Bourgeois, Larry Bourgeois, Liam Neeson, and opens on June 14th, 2019.