Even though the X-Men franchise has lasted for 20 years, the Men in Black franchise has lasted for 22 years. Assuredly, there was a gap whereas this franchise didn't produce a film from 2012 to 2019, but it has lasted a while. This is a total satire about how to manage misbehaving aliens in a world where the normal citizen can't know they're even here, hence the Men in Black organization. So we now have been offered "Men in Black: International" with a wole new storyline and cast to sink our teeth into.
The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. In this new adventure, they tackle their biggest, most global threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organization.
This story shows us how one of the agents will enter the organization by going back to her past as she witnesses an alien, and when Molly (Tessa Thompson) grows up, she is, and has been, totally obsessed with being part of this organization. She aces the FBI Academy and convinces her superiors that she wants to work for the special organization that addresses the alien aspect. So, they send her to Agent O (Emma Thompson), the head of Men in Black (NYC), and she whisks her to Men in Black (London), where she will be precepted by Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) in order to combat a possible mole within the organization. Molly becomes Agent M and she is introduced to the boss of London's office, Agent High T (Liam Neeson), and through alien plants out there, these agents search out to find this mole and, in the process, reach to save the world from annihilation.
Others to round out the cast are Kumail Nanjiani as the voice of Pawny, Rebecca Ferguson as Riza, Rafe Spall as Agent C, Kayvan Novak as Vungas, Spencer Wilding as Luca Brasi, Marcy Harriell as Molly's Mom, Inny Clemons as Molly's Dad, Laurent Bourgeois as Alien Twin, Larry Bourgeois as Alien Twin, Aaron Serotsky as Men in Black #1 and Mandeiya Flory as Young Molly.
This was cleverly directed by seasoned veteran F. Gary Gray ("Friday" '95, "Set It Off" '96, "The Negotiator" '98, "A Man Apart" '03, "The Italian Job" '03, "Be Cool" '05, "Law Abiding Citizen" '09, "Straight Outta Compton" '15, "The Fate of the Furious" '17) plus TV, video shorts and videos. Other than centering on adventure/crime type films, Gray's films are about as diverse as the titles themselves. He definitely knows how to extract the emotions that are needed out of his actors to show his audiences how real these characters are, and this film is no exception. Sure, this is pure fantasy, but it being adventurous, the characters can still have a realness about them that is crucial for the audience. He's a perennial director which I never tire of his expertise. It was written by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum ("Shadow of Fear" '04, "Iron Man" '08, "Punisher: War Zone" '08, "Transformers: The Last Knight" '17), based on the Malibu comic by Lowell Cunningham. With a premise as this has, the sky is actually the limit. Assuming the writing is effective, the storylines can go on forever. However, with this script, it definitely needed more polish--they seem to have a problem connecting the connection of these two agents getting to know one another and the meat of the script of what they are dealing with in order the save the world. Truly this was difficult to write considering that, not only were they creating a different story, but attempting to work in an entirely new cast to boot. This definitely was entertaining--the chemistry between Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson was awesome as was Emma Thompson with that hilarious dry English wit. It makes me wonder why Columbia Pictures didn't commission Ed Solomon, who wrote the original "Men in Black" in 1997 to write this one. Could be that he was too busy at the time, not sure, but the screenplay could've been tighter and more cohesive if Solomon was wooed into writing it. Considering how popular sequels are anymore, another installment will undoubtedly be produced. Maybe they can get Solomon to write that one. The visual effects predominantly designed by MPC (Moving Picture Company), SPI (Sony Pictures Imageworks), Double Negative and Method Studios were amazingly seamless and definitely has improved since the last installment.
If you haven't see a film in 4DX, I recommend it highly--it adds wind, sprits of water and seats that move and rock that is cued by the film that is like a ride in and of itself. I saw this film in 4DX and had about as much fun as the film itself. It's also in a giant IMAX format as well. This is why we go to see films in the summer time.
Out of 4 Stars: 3 Rated: PG-13 114mins.
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