Film Review: MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL (*SPOILERS*)

*WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD IN THIS BLOGPOST*
WHAT-IS: "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."


Directed by F. Gary Gray, written by Art Marcum & Matt Holloway and produced by Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, "MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL" is 4th film in the franchise, based on the Malibu Comic by Lowell Cunningham.


This particular blogpost started out as a posting of the "Bonus Features Sneak Peek", leading to an unabashed display of purchase on Amazon (*Purchases which helps this humble blog survive, thanks), which has now led to this (hopefully) brief review of MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL (as I begin to type this up at 12:30AM on the first day of August, 2019) = a movie I found generally entertaining, but ultimately 115 minutes' worth of my life I will never get back, and wished I had a memory neutraliser to flashy-my-memories away with.


As mentioned earlier, this is the 4th film in the franchise (referred to as a "Spin Off"), since rebooted to encompass an "international" aspect of the MIB, jumps right into a flashback featuring Chris Hemsworth's "Agent H" and Liam Neeson's "High T" fighting aliens on the Eiffel Tower, then flash-forwards to Tessa Thompson (as Molly Wright / Agent M, a rookie MIB recruit) black-"side"-mailing her way into MIB (recruitment procedures certainly has changed since the "Agent J"-days...), then we get to see her own flashback sequence to her first encounter with an alien, who grows up, and crosses paths wth her in her adult "Agent M"-life afters, and therein lies the general direction this film has decided to take, and the jamming in with a failed attempt to add "depth of history" to the proceedings.


The cookie-cutter plot is typical "Hollywood", with instances and reactions reminiscent of every other feature film or procedural television machinations, with a numbing attempt at "twists", which essentially would work if folks watching this film has not watched any other Hollywood/Western media project for the past century.

If there is a standout, I would suppose this film is all about the toys and collectibles it could churn out, versus the emotionally-detached interaction between humans-to-humans, much less human-to-aliens. The tech is always fun, and the myriad of ineffective weapons hidden in the car was the highlight of the film for me.


Without the trappings of recognition - Chris is "Thor", Tessa is "Valkyrie" and Liam Neeson is "Liam Neeson" - the characters remain forgettable and ultimately as soul-less as the character voice of comedian Kumail Nanjiani as "Pawny" - a tiny alien warrior wannabe funko-pop-bobblehead that H and M befriend.

I tend to not blame the actor, just the director who directed him.

For the sheer frustration and cine-life of me, I recognised but could not place WHO played the alien arms-dealer "Riza Stavros", until researching for this article (it's Rebecca Ferguson, whom I recognise in Mission Impossible ~ d'oh).

Everyone else was forgettable (Sorry, Emma Thompson), in a film that remained largely unimpressive, and no doubt a stain in the memory-scape after being mind-wiped with the tubular-flashing-thingie - which used to be so awesome now it feels like a shiny lux-vibrator everyone wants to lay their hands on.


If I have not been clear enough with my limited grasp of the English language and vocabulary here, suffice to say: I Am Not A Huge Fan. And while compared to MIB 1 and MIB 2, this was forgettable, but was not "unwatchable", likened to MIB 3, still somewhat fun with the premise, but feels like that alien neighbour who stayed on Earth and over-stepped his welcome. But hey, power to you if you enjoyed it! This is after all a guilt-free ride thru the fantastic with no stakes worth getting emotional over for!

(Additional info source: Wiki)

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