Welcome back to Sound Off!, a semi-regular column where members of Speculative Chic gather together to chat about the latest BIG THING in entertainment. This time, put on your sunglasses and dapper black suit and discuss Men in Black: International, which premiered in the United States on Friday, June 14, 2019.
Sound Off! is meant to be a reaction, but not necessarily a review. After all, while we are all individuals, even mutual love of something (or hate) can come from different places: you may find everything from critique to fangirling to maybe even hate-watching.
Now, join J.L. Gribble as she talks about Men in Black: International! [Note: Spoiler-free!]
Agent J.L.: Let’s get one thing out of the way: There will never be a Men in Black franchise film as good as the original. So, without comparing them directly, how did this latest installment hold up? Not too bad, actually.
I was prepared for Tessa Thompson’s character to be the daughter of Will Smith’s Agent J, and was pleasantly surprised to find that she has her own unique origin story that relies entirely on her own strengths and intelligence. In addition, her character arc supplements that of Agent H rather than completely supports it. I was even more surprised by the amount of realistic flirting between two attractive characters that does NOT devolve into immediate romance. Realistic relationships in my stories filled with science-fiction shenanigans are a must.
Luckily, we now live in a world where film directors have realized that Chris Hemsworth is attractive AND hilarious, and this movie features both attributes to good effect. I was prepared to be distracted by the combo of Hemsworth and Thompson having enjoyed their chemistry in Thor: Ragnarok, but this time they played very different characters and it was easy to follow along with Agents H and M and their adventure without constant comparison to Thor and Valkyrie.
Kumail Nanjiani steals the show as Pawny, a miniature CGI-driven character who manages to be larger-than-life and an equal foil to the two human characters he supports.
And while nothing will capture the charm of the Edgar Suit in the first film, Laurent and Larry Bourgeois are amazing as the villains of the piece. They are suitably creepy in human form, and the CGI of their alien form was the perfect mixture of absolutely gorgeous and vaguely terrifying.
Did we need another Men in Black film? Probably not. Sony is obsessed with franchises, so it was only a matter of time until we got one. They could have done worse with this movie, but it had the right number of callbacks to the film that made this universe great while also giving it a lot of opportunities to stand on its own. I’m not sure I’d want another movie starring Agents H and M, as much as I enjoyed them, but I’d probably be happy enough to check out another Men in Black movie in the future.
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