Tag: Tessa Thompson

You’d be forgiven in this day and age for not being familiar with the Men in Black franchise. The series, based on the popular comic, had its first cinematic adventure in 1997 – led by the unlikely yet infinitely watchable duo of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones – and released two more sequels in the intervening 20 years to waning interest and lessening quality each time. Enter director F. Gary Gray’s reboot Men in Black: International, intended to breathe new life into the franchise, with new blood both behind and in front of the camera and two of the most popular actors working today in Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. It may be time to retire the suits for good after this one though, as Men in Black: International is one of the most bland and forgettable sci-fi action films in recent memory.

The plot (and I use that term loosely) revolves around Agent M (Tessa Thompson) attempting to uncover and enrol in the Men in Black agency following a run-in with an alien creature as a child. Her attempts land her on a probationary mission with Agent H (Chris Hemsworth), a high ranking member of the organisation who, together with Agent High T (Liam Neeson), defeated an alien invasion from a species known as “The Hive” three years prior and hasn’t been the same since. What starts as a routine mission babysitting a highly regarded alien soon turns to ruin after the arrival of two alien beings with the ability to turn into light and murder anyone in their path. Agents M and H must uncover the origin of these deadly assassins, whilst also dealing with the possibility of a mole within the Men in Black and ensuring that the most powerful weapon in the galaxy does not fall into the wrong hands.

The story, simply put, is a mess: full of disparate parts with no real connective tissue as we rush from scene to scene. There’s no depth or time given to any scene to let it breathe; things simply happen to the characters and the next scene is something totally independent of the last. For example: one minute the agents are being chased through the streets of Marrakesh in what we’re supposed to believe is a life or death fight for survival, and as soon as they enter a building housing an alien queen that intensity is gone. It’s never made clear to the audience if these assailants chasing the agents have given up, if the building has cloaked them or any number of science fiction options the writers could have used to give the scene some explanation – instead opting to abandon the last scene because now it’s time for the funny alien. This disjointed approach also robs the characters of any real development or arcs. The audience is meant to believe that Tessa Thompson has worked her whole life to realise this dream of joining the Men in Black but when it takes all of 10 minutes to go from nobody to rookie that doesn’t come across at all.

The ’97 original film succeeded off the back of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones’ joint charisma and the running joke of the absurdity of that pairing. The humour that was created out of that combo worked for those actors and for the time in which the movie was made. International attempts that same style of humour without the odd pairing prerequisite Smith and Jones had, especially after Hemsworth and Thompson proved they had chemistry in Thor: Ragnarok, and as such all the jokes that come out of this fall disastrously flat. The only humour that really comes off well here is from Kumail Nanjiani’s pint sized alien Pawny, who joins H and M on their travels. Nanjiani’s trademark scathing humour is dialled down here to fit in with the rating but it always packs a bite, stealing the scene from whoever else is in it. Pawny was undoubtedly the highlight of the film despite the questionable CGI on the character at times. Given that the CGI of the original film was some of the greatest ever seen at that point in cinematic history, it’s unfortunate that is not the case here – alternating between overly glossy to downright awful to the point you can almost see the outline of the shape on the green screen.

Your mileage with Men in Black: International will depend on how you feel about Hemsworth and Thompson. Make no mistake they are the main attraction here, and you would be forgiven for being excited to see that combination again following Thor: Ragnarok. Unfortunately that chemistry is largely gone, with Hemsworth and Thompson seemingly operating as though they are in completely different movies. Thompson opts to play the straight woman here, giving the character a harder edge that doesn’t allow for much fun banter with Hemsworth’s character. There’s bright sparks here and there, but ultimately the character is written in such a one note way that there’s only so much a talented actress like Thompson can do with the role, and her lack of surprise at literally anything – even when others around her are shocked – doesn’t allow for the audience to really invest in her character. Hemsworth gets a chance to let his charisma and charm loose – to mixed results. He just doesn’t have the widespread appeal that Will Smith had in the original; and in instances where Smith played his ignorance as endearing, Hemsworth comes across as out of his depth. Despite the character’s shortcomings, Hemsworth never stops being fun to watch and keeps you along for the ride even when everything around him is so bland. Liam Neeson and Rebecca Ferguson also have brief but entertaining roles as the leader of the London Men in Black branch and an alien arms dealer respectively. Ferguson in particular is clearly having a ball with the character and it’s nice to see her branch out of her dramatic and more serious action roles.

Men in Black: International is ultimately an extremely forgettable and uninteresting sequel/reboot that does not do anything new or different enough to justify its existence. The proposed Men in Black / 21 Jump Street crossover which was developed and subsequently scrapped may not have worked in its own right, but it would have at least been something different as opposed to the tired rehash audiences received. Despite Chris Hemsworth and Kumail Nanjiani’s best efforts, in the end it just isn’t enough to save this film from fading from audiences’ minds as if they’d been hit with a blast from the neuralyzer.

Men in Black: International stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Kumail Nanjiani, Liam Neeson, Rebecca Ferguson & Emma Thompson and is in cinemas now.