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Cinema Trips - 'Men in Black: International'

My thoughts on the fourth installment in the 'Men in Black' franchise.

By BoblobV2Published 5 years ago 3 min read
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Men in Black: International is the fourth film in the Men in Black franchise, taking place in the same reality as the Will Smith films while also acting as a soft reboot of sorts. The Men in Black films are based on the comic by Lowell Cunningham published by Malibu/Marvel Comics. This film is directed by F. Gary Grey (Straight Outta Compton, The Fate of the Furious), and is written by Matt Holloway and Art Marcum (Iron Man). The film stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, who reunite on-screen after their exploits in Thor Ragnarok, Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick), Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible - Fallout), Rafe Spall (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), and another actor reunion in Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson, who were in Love Actually together. The film cost $110 million to produce, runs for 115 minutes and was distributed by Sony Pictures.

Narrative

The narrative follows two agents played by Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson who are on the trail of finding the answers to a mystery while fighting off aliens who have the power to take on the form of humans. Hemsworth plays a senior member of the Men in Black, while Thompson is a rookie who, after twenty years of searching, finds the Men in Black using her tenacity and intellect. While these things happen, characters enter and leave without rhyme nor reason, the narrative goes to different locations as if it were a checklist, and the pace of the narrative is completely off, taking time in some places while completely rushing through others. The reasons why I am being vague with the details are because, one, spoilers, and two, the film was so forgettable that I had forgotten most of it by the time the end credits were rolling. Plus, the final plot twist was so predictable that you can predict it accurately within the first five minutes of the film, which really makes you question why you watched the film to begin with, as most of it felt as if it were a waste of time.

Characters

The highlight of the film is definitely the chemistry that Hemsworth and Thompson have on screen together, while there were also good moments peppered in with the performances by Neeson, Ferguson, and the brief moments when Emma Thompson (who stole every scene she was in) was on-screen. While Kumail Nanjiani gave a serviceable voice performance, the character that he played at times grated on me, and at times it saw where Hemsworth’s characters mind was at whenever the two interacted with each other. It was a character I could have done without personally. The villains of the film had no personality and it is arguable that two planks of wood had more personality than them. Ferguson was perfectly okay considering the part and the amount of screen time that she had.

Visuals/ Music

Visually, the film looked as if it was competently made. The effects on the film were hit or miss, some of them looking crisp while others looked as if they were graphics from a PlayStation 3 game. It was not the most exciting of films to look at, though thankfully it was bright enough that at no point was I wondering what was going on in the scene, and the camera was steady enough that I was not confused by the action that was taking place in the scene. Though beyond that, everything looked fairly bland to look at, and at times, had a very television feel to things. The music was forgettable, as the only theme that was memorable was the original Men in Black theme.

Recommendation

In short, this is not a bad film. If anything, I would say that this is a very forgettable film that you would probably forget ten minutes after watching it. The main things that kept me entertained in the film were the characters and the charisma of the actors; beyond that even the action of the film is pretty bland. As such, this is a film that I recommend you skip.

movie review
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About the Creator

BoblobV2

Writing about anime, and anything else I find interesting.

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