Men In Black: International

This review may contain spoilers!

Despite a pretty decent cast this Men In Black spinoff just does not do the series justice. I would give Men In Black: International a 5.5/10.

Men In Black: International follows new probationary Agent M and her partner in the field, Agent H, as they attempt to discover a mole in the Men in Black organisation and prevent villainous alien race, The Hive, from destroying the planet. The film manages to do fairly well with the comedic aspects of the series most of the time, a lot of the jokes build out of creative characters or interesting character relationships. A lot of the moments where characters get the time to have a bit of a quick exchange with one another is where the opportunity arises for some of the funniest scenes. The special effects in this film aren't too bad; the alien twins look decidedly eerie, The Hive as a species looks like nightmare fuel and Pawny and the hoverbike have some of the coolest designs and attention to detail. The score for the film has a lot of callbacks to music used throughout the series which is some of the only nostalgic references that work for this film.

Chris Hemsworth, who played Agent H, is very good as the cocky, arrogant veteran field agent; I liked how Hemsworth developed and played to the loss of memory his character had suffered without realising it. Tessa Thompson, who played Agent M, really felt like this genius sharp-witted role who could solve any mystery and craft a solution to problems as they presented themselves to her; Thompson made a very relatable protagonist and held her own strongly as a lead. Rafe Spall, who played Agent C, was rather shifty is the consistently irritated and complaining agent at MiB headquarters; Spall and Hemsworth had excellent chemistry as onscreen rivals that resulted in some seriously entertaining dialogue exchanges.

However, the best performance came from Kumail Nanjiani, who voiced Pawny. This is one of those alien roles that just completely steals the show and it is clear from his constant presence that this was the hope. Nanjiani plays up the overdramatic tiny alien warrior's dedication to fighting and making honourable sacrifices in such a comedic way. This is a role who is small in stature but seems very bold and capable of sharp, witty remarks against characters much bigger than himself. I loved the love/hate friendship between Pawny and H, that was a lot of fun. In the final act when Nanjiani's role was given one of the largest heroic moments you can't help but feel it was the most impressive aspect of the film.

For such an established film series this takes a very long time to actually get underway. Throughout the first act we're being introduced to character after character, in some cases time is taken up to reintroduce a character and explain their personal baggage a few time. This made the introduction of the film rather boring and didn't hook the viewer right away. In fact after that we're led on this cat and mouse storyline where the heroes and antagonists are constantly trying to keep hold of an alien artefact all while trying to work out what it is. This isn't exactly a very inspired narrative and we've all seen it before, and this film doesn't appear interested in putting a fresh spin on it in any way. The mole within the Men in Black subplot isn't much of a surprise, the film pushes you to think it's Agent C but the opening scene of the film means that you know Agent High T is going to ultimately reveal himself as an antagonist. That all builds into a final antagonist confrontation that is over far too quickly and has an awkward father/son relationship moment between H and T that felt tacked on. The cinematography for the feature is lazy at best, there are a number of shots in which characters enter a scene but you never see them step into frame or a fight sequence is filmed in a static manner because it's clearly easier. The soundtrack for the film didn't really accompany much of what we were watching, it just felt like random picks of music that was very hot right now.

Rebecca Ferguson, who played Riza, really has had a big 180 in terms of the types of roles she's taking and doing; this antagonist was painfully over the top and seemed like a gag the film didn't even think was very important. Emma Thompson, who played Agent O, was a return character from the MiB franchise who really didn't add all that much; including a character just to be a throwback means that they come across as purposeless which is what happened here to Thompson. Liam Neeson, who played Agent High T, is very restrained throughout the film and doesn't really care about exploring the limits of his character very much; Neeson just got lazy and cut corners which is what made the reveal that he was the ultimate antagonist all the more boring.