Men in Black: International (2019)

User Review

• 

  d_riptide

  2 / 10

  Three straight sequels later and “Men In Black: International” is making me consider getting neuralized, permanently at best. Even with a new cast, new director, new sense of direction as opposed to its predecessors, it still feels EXACTLY the same as the film’s we’ve seen before for the past two decades. But it’s not without its usual beats. Neeson is great, Thompson and Hemsworth have solid chemistry, action sequences are tolerable and the world-building is still somehow at a remarkable high point considering the boundaries set in this franchise. But everything else the film fails to recapture from the past two decades don’t result in much in anything because the film is so goddamn boring. The characters are uninteresting, the plot is almost impossible to remember due to each character lacking a distinctive personality and that it literally doesn’t go anywhere following the lack of a solid structure, the alien threats in this movie don’t pose any genuine sense of dread or suspense to the situation which also renders the plot pointless, that godforsaken plot twist can be seen literally milliseconds away, the writing doesn’t expand upon the universe, emotional beats are missing, dialogue is scarcely surface-level and the biggest thing that irked me outside of the severe lack of tension and a intangible forgettable plot is that it’s. JUST. NOT. FUNNY.
  
  
  The comedy is one of the biggest aspects that makes an MIB movie enjoyable if not tolerable outside of the usual alien nonsense albeit most of it came from Jones and Smith as well as the dialogue having actual bite to it. This film has no such bite to its dialogue and no memorable characters to deliver said comedic moment enough to get me to laugh and defies any definition or interpretation of painful. Weak gags, horrible puns, pitifully corny jokes with no sense of solidity or dignity for that matter and if you add all those together, it’s pretty much the equivalent of putting lipstick on a pig. Pretty it up and admire all you want, it’s still just a pig. Actually, I take that back: this is the bug in the Edgar suit from the first film.
  
  The end result is just a bland uninspired tale that not only makes the Men In Black look and feel incredibly outdated but it also makes the sequels look better in comparison and the first film look like lightning in a bottle. The formula behind the first film is not even that hard to crack but SONY’s doesn’t even feel as if......argh.
  
  I just need to nerualize myself right now.

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