Men in Black: International (2019) Spoiler-Filled Review/Rant: Should Have Stayed Behind In New York...

 

The "Men In Black" franchise is an enjoyable sci-fi romp that has tons of charm the more times I watch. The first and third film are the best the property has to offer with the second film being very flawed despite some good moments. While the third film manages to end the series off in a fine conclusion, Sony wanted to do more with the franchise. Although plans for a fourth film with the original leads and a crossover film with "21 Jump Street" were dropped, the studio decided to go with a spin-off film that will continue from the trilogy, but will feature a brand-new duo that would hopefully carry the franchise. This film however manages to not only get some pretty bad reviews, but failed to earn enough money at the box office, leaving the future of the franchise to rather bleak. To be honest, I'm fine as long as any future films were going to be of similar quality like this one.

Positives:

• The directing by F. Gary Gray. While it's somewhat similar to Barry Sonnenfield's work in the previous films, Gray manages to make a polished movie despite production drama. Not only is the film perhaps the most colourful of the franchise in regards to lighting and alien designs, but the use of on-screen locations of London, New York and Marrakesh are inspiring to say the least. Considering that the "Aladdin" remake failed to even shoot a good chunk of the film on-location, it's great that Gray actually manages to get scenes shot in the actual city rather than just having sets in a studio.
• The cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh. Drybrurgh offers some nice sweeping shots and one-takes while also working as the viewer's perspective at times whenever some sense of spectacle is portrayed.
• The visual effects. The spin-off film is the first to abandon any use of practical effects and make-up on the aliens. While it's a double edged sword as I will discuss in the negative portion of the review, the CGI is well-rendered and detailed for the most part. Not every effect is convincing, but the CGI looks really good a lot of the time and perhaps the best-looking in the franchise.
• The action sequences. They manage to be engaging and visually distinct by the scenarios. The shootout in London where the Twins demonstrate their matter-warping abilities is probably the best scene of the film that captures the spirit of the franchise with some familiar and new imagery at the same time. The Marrakesh space bike scene and the close-quarters battle between M/Riza and H/Luca also have some kinetic energy and a few bits of humour that work. Although the filmmaking of the film is really good, that's all that can be said about the positives.

Negatives:

• The story. The film begins with Molly, as a kid, encountering an alien and her parents being the only ones to lose their memory of the encounter by some incompetent agents who don't even bother to grab said alien. 20 years later and Molly has managed to find the MIB headquarters, which she manages to persuade to join the ranks offscreen with no trouble at all. After two weeks of training, she is, for some reason, appointed to go to the London branch of MIB to deal with their problem for no reason. She is partnered up with Agent H, who is said by many to have changed ever since he saved the world despite not really showing his original personality to begin with. The two then stumble upon a powerful weapon that is extremely destructive to the planet and galaxy. This weapon is sought after some arms-dealers, two mysterious alien beings known as The Twins, and a mole in the London branch of MIB. The story is a complete mess in regards for what it wants to focus on. At first, it focuses on what little of Molly's journey is, but as soon as she achieves getting to MIB, it immediately throws her into a mission that she has no connection to whatsoever. There's also the lack of depth given by the villains, which I will touch upon later. On top of all of these issues, the film has plot holes galore and some questionable pacing issues in regards to Molly being far more ahead of the plot in comparison to the viewer.
• The humour. While there are a few laughs here and there, the film has more awkward deliveries and jokes that don't hit. Whether it's a homage to the previous films or the banter between M and H, it's really poor for most of the part. Every other film in the series has strong humour regardless of the overall quality of the film, "MIB: International" has the weakest jokes in the film and it's mainly due to hoping easter eggs and the "chemistry" between M and H will sell the film. Speaking of which...
• The main characters. Molly/M, played by Tessa Thompson, is one of the blandest protagonists in a recent film. The movie pushes so much on how fantastic she is of an agent and person that she barely shows flaws or mistakes as a rookie. Will Smith in the previous films makes goofs and has a very curious outlook on life, but that's what makes him so likeable. It's due to his humanity and everyday joe reacting to this brand new world hidden under his nose. Molly is already obsessed with tracking the organization in the beginning and she never seems impressed or happy whatsoever. For a rookie, she just knows everything that is to be expected and it just makes her boring. Agent H, played by Chris Hemsworth, is a more likeable character due to his goofiness, but the film obsesses about how he has changed since he and his mentor saved the world a few years ago. This would be fine if we knew who H was prior to the film, but aside from one quick opening scene where he's similar in competence as Will Smith's Agent J, that's about it. We are just supposed to accept that his ego and goofiness is not part of his character, which will reveal that he had his memory erased.
• The pairing of Thompson and Hemsworth as the main leads. What made the previous films so entertaining, particularly the first film, is the freshness of seeing Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones as an unexpected duo. This blend of new and old talent was ingenious and managed to impress audiences by seeing an out-of-the-box duo. While Thompson and Hemsworth are good actors, we already saw them onscreen as Thor and Valkyrie in the Marvel movies. Not only does the pairing of them yet again lose some freshness and variety, but it comes across as extremely forced by both the poor humour and acting from Thompson specifically. On a side note, why get an Australian to represent the British division of MIB?
• The villains. All of them are a step-down from the previous films due to their lack of exploration and threat to the characters. First, there are the Twins, played by Laurent and Larry Bourgeois. These mysterious beings can shape-shift and have matter-bending abilities and appear to be the main villains for most of the film as they seek the weapon M has. While at first they prove to be effective in regards to their design and powers, they reveal that they are actually trying to kill another worse alien with the weapon before being killed by a sneak-attack from High T. It's a ridiculous twist regarding their morality considering that they literally killed humans and an entire alien species prior to this reveal. Next, there's High T/The Hive, played by Liam Neeson. Being the obvious twist villain, High T is the head of the London division that has secretly been taken control by the Hive, a parasitic alien species that seeks to take over the planet. While Neeson is doing a decent performance, the problem is that the reveal has little time to let you process what really happened with High T. During the climax, H attempts to reach out to T, which does manage to work for a bit before M destroys him. The Hive is barely explored at all in the film in regards to its goals and what it does to its human host, which is a problem considering that all of the other films make it clear what species the villains are and what capabilities and goals they seek. The last villain would be Riza, an alien arms-dealer and H's ex, played by Rebecca Ferguson. While probably the most entertaining and easy-to-understand villain in the film mainly thanks to Ferguson's performance, Riza is still not that big of a threat due to how the film and characters act how dangerous she can be.  But she's literally a human-looking alien that has a third arm. While it makes for a cool action scene, it's just not that creative and feels like the character was made to serve some in-joke.
• The side characters. There's only a few to note, so I will keep it brief. There's Pawny, a tiny alien that worships M as his queen voiced by Kumail Nanjiani. While spouting a few jokes here and there, his schtick gets real old real fast and his combat capabilities feel so random given how tiny he is and how crucial he was to the climax which I will touch upon. There's Agent O, a nosy and high-ranking agent who seems to appear as the mole played by Rafe Spall. Spall tries his best, but the material just pushes him as the generic red-herring. There's Vungus, a sloppy alien who's a member of royalty and a target of The Twins voiced by Kayvan Novak. There's not much to say about Vungus due to the jokes and plot relevance surrounding him being a bit ridiculous. There's Luca, an alien bodyguard for Riza who happens to be the very alien Molly encountered as a kid played by Spencer Wilding. Luca is probably the best original character in the film due to how the script doesn't overuse him and the twist regarding him being the same alien is surprisingly clever for the poor writing. Lastly, there's Agent O, the head of the New York branch of MIB reprised by Emma Thompson. Thompson serves as the only returning character from the franchise and although it's nice seeing her in the few scenes she's in, the fact that she hires Molly after a not-very convincing audition does bump her down a bit. Aside from a cameo by the worm guys and Frank the Pug, that's really about it for the returning cast, which is kind of depressing.
• The editing by Zene Baker and Christain Wagner. While the editing in the film is fairly decent in regards to the action and nice transitions, there's an abundance of weird one-shot transitions that are so awkwardly out of place. A good example would be when M and H lose the weapon to an alien that works for Riza. After the scene ends, we cut to an uncomfortably long shot of the moon. Not only does the moon look poor in quality, but the shot cuts to the agents fixing their hoverbike afterwards. There's not even a smooth pan or anything. Same can be said for the reveal of the weapon's capability at 0.001% of its power. There's a pan revealing the damage it did to the desert, but the film cuts off halfway before we see the entire scale. Did the weapon just create a gigantic creator or a cliffside? I don't know because the film doesn't want me to know.
• The music by Danny Elfman and Chris Bacon. While the two have created the memorable theme of the franchise, they suffer from the same issue that Alan Silvestri had for the "Back to the Future" sequels. This issue being that the composers have trouble in making the music to the sequels more distinct. While the first and third film had good music and soundtracks, the fourth film has a forgettable track of music aside from the main theme. There's not even a nice soundtrack tied to the film as the only licensed song I can recall was cut short by some guy saying "Oi!" from afar. I can't even recall the song to begin with! The underground rave has some modern music that would get dated in a few years, but other than that, the audio department proves disappointing.
• The overuse of CGI. While I did say that the visual effects are pretty good, the problem is that the film departs from the use of practical and make-up effects for the aliens. Now, all of the aliens are made in a computer. Because of the film lacking these effects, it really gives off the impression that the filmmakers were extremely lazy in regards to the production and creativity of the aliens, no matter how nice the CGI looks.
• The climax. It feels so rushed that it's very pathetic. So, after destroying The Twins, M and H get a sudden hunch that High T betrayed the organization completely out of nowhere. After tracking him down to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, High T reveals that he, possessed by the Hive, did indeed erase H's memory about the event where the two went to stop said Hive. M gets thrown into a wormhole that is transporting the Hive in a scene extremely reminiscent of the "Ghostbusters" reboot. She gets saved by Pawny, who despite his tiny size and arsenal, manages to pull both he and her out of the wormhole. After H manages to get in touch of what little of High T is left, M uses the weapon on max setting to destroy High T and the Hive that was coming inside the wormhole. Not only is this climax so quickly resolved with absolutely no stakes, which every other film prior managed to have, but it even breaks its own rules at times. I find it hard to believe that Pawny can save both himself and M while inside a wormhole given how puny he is. Not only that, but we saw how powerful the weapon was at the lowest possible setting. So, you're telling me that the highest possible setting didn't throw the agents far back or even destroy the Eiffel Tower? It's ridiculous how safe and brainless the climatic battle is. It also doesn't help that everyone mourns High T even though they barely explain what was left of him ever since the Hive got him.

"Men in Black: International" is not only the worst film of the franchise, but an extremely underwhelming return to the franchise that might have killed it in its tracks. While Gray's direction is solid with a range of colour and on-screen locations, Dryburgh's cinematography is pretty good with some nice one-shots and tracking shots, the CGI is nice with tons of detail and perhaps the best looking in the franchise, and the action sequences are quite engaging, that's all that the film can manage to do well. The story is a mess with tons of plot-holes and lack of actual focus or direction, the jokes miss for the most part with only a few laughs that are earned, M is an extremely bland protagonist that's not interesting or likeable, H's subplot of him being changed was completely thrown in and pointless to build his character, the pairing of Thompson and Hemsworth is already done before and feels tired and forced in the film, the villains are all over the place in regards to focus or character depth, the side characters are really generic despite the talent attached to them, the editing by Baker and Wagner can be painful at times with some awkward cuts and inserts, the music by Elfman and Bacon is more of the same with barely anything new or memorable alongside a lack of a decent soundtrack, the overuse of CGI and departure from practical effects and make-up feels lazy and sometimes a bit unpleasant, and the climax falls flat on its face with a rushed nature and lack of stakes or continuity. This film is the perfect definition of a polished turd. Yes, the production design, effects, and action look nice and even on par with the franchise, but the interior of the film, which is mainly the script, reeks and rots no matter how good it looks on the outside. It's tolerable to watch once, maybe twice, but it's not worth going back as it would fade from your memory much like if you were neuralysed yourself.

Verdict: 4.5/10. Below-average with a pile of problems next to an anthill of positives and potential. Stick with the trilogy and only watch for some nice action scenes.