In Men In Black: International there were two points at which I was like “Have they censored a version exclusively for India?”. When Tessa Thompson arrives at the MIB London headquarters, she and Liam Neeson are watching Ashish Chanchlani’s YouTube video on a giant screen. And then when Agent C starts complaining about the behavior of Agent H using the word Farrago, Chris Hemsworth (agent H) says “Who says Farrago?”. Barring these two “what/really?” moments, this new addition to the MIB universe is flat out boring.
So this time the story is set in Europe and MIB has a headquarters in London headed by High T. And their best agent is Agent H who prefers to work alone. So to this whole parallel world of aliens comes a new recruit named Molly who eventually became Agent M. An outer galaxy force arrives on earth to take away a really powerful weapon and the movie is about how Agents H and M prevents that event.
When I watch movies like Shazam, Deadpool and almost all of the MCU movies, and laugh for the repartee and banter, a part of me used to feel that whether this dialogue humor thing is becoming a repetitive trait that can make any movie a funny one. But Men In Black International from F Gary Gray pretty much cleared that confusion as it only relied on that kind of comedy and proved that this treatment can be boring too. At one point in MIB International, the cliché of the characters realizing that there is a mole in the organization and I was able to predict it so easily and if you see the movie you will realize that predicting that outcome isn’t a tough task.
The Italian Job director F Gary Gray is merely focusing on the jokes uttered by the characters. There are no real explanations on who these characters are and we are going through template MIB sequences with pretty much nothing giving us any sort of excitement. For a huge chunk of the runtime, we are not even sure about what the conflict is in this movie. Whenever the banter between Thompson and Hemsworth goes beyond the tolerable level, the twin brothers come and remind us about the plot. The writing is really sloppy here. The old MIB had nicely written characters and here barring that Kumail Nanjiani voiced Pawny, no one becomes memorable for the viewer.
Chris Hemsworth’s version of the cool agent has way too much coolness. The chemistry he and Tessa Thompson share are funny. And I loved the confidence with which Tessa Thompson plays the role of Molly. The problem is that the movie takes advantage of this chemistry excessively, making it an exhausting comedy. Kumail Nanjiani makes Pawny extremely adorable even when he calls agent H a jackass. Both Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson have extended cameo like scenes in this movie. The gorgeous Rebecca Ferguson got a forgettable role as Riza and Rafe Spall was okay as agent C.
The 1997 MIB was an extremely fresh and entertaining concept. The 2019 soft reboot of this franchise is an extremely lazy product that tries to rehash all the existing traits in the least innovative way. Men In Black International is very close to being a farrago.
Rating: 1.5/5
The 2019 soft reboot of this franchise is an extremely lazy product that tries to rehash all the existing traits in the least innovative way.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
