'Men in Black: International' review: Where did the charm of this franchise go? BilgeEbiri writes
Photo: Giles Keyte/Columbia Pictures It’s hard sometimes to make something look easy. The original Men in Black films never gave the sense that they were trying all that hard. Hybrids of Spielbergian sci-fi wonder and snarky buddy-cop flicks, they were light, funny, weird, and unfussy — the kinds of movies you didn’t think too hard about, but that made for welcome time-wasters.
The lightheartedness of the original MIB films felt so organic and offhand in part because the concept fit the leads’ respective personae. As Agents K and J, two black-suited operatives working for a secret organization that apprehends malevolent alien life-forms hiding among the people of Earth, Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith made for a no-brainer pairing. Jones was the deadpan, by-the-book hard-ass, Smith the street-smart wisecrack machine; just put them together and step back.
Hollywood, of course, can’t leave well enough alone, so Men in Black: International attempts to recharge this franchise for today’s audiences, with Chris Hemsworth and his Thor: Ragnarok co-star Tessa Thompson taking over, this time as Agents H and M. She’s the wide-eyed newcomer eager to unlock the mysteries of the universe, and has doggedly spent years trying to join the organization.
It’s not that this new movie has forgotten the fleet-footed charm of the original MIB films; it’s just that it doesn’t quite know how to conjure it again, so it confuses levity with listlessness. Hemsworth and Thompson had terrific chemistry in Thor: Ragnarok, and they’re both gifted comic actors. But they’re not inherently funny presences the way Smith and Jones were; they need something to do.
At times Men in Black: International seems to be going for a breezier version of a James Bond picture, but its world hasn’t really been imagined in any meaningful way. Eventually it all just devolves into a series of lazy plot devices to get our heroes from point A to point B to point C. Along the way, the film seems content to always go for the easiest jokes, almost as if being too clever might go against the Men in Black ethos.
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