Its been 23 years since the film series started and in that time we have had four films which as someone who has never read the comics that the series is based on, is pretty good for a franchise that may be slowly dying. The first couple of films came out around the time when digital and CGI effects were becoming the norm and groundbreaking at that. The third film then came out at the time where nearly all the major studios had managed to master the ability to make the effects as realistic as possible with nothing cheap thrown in. So its fair to say that the Men in Black films have been going on for as long as these effects have been around. But the question of why I have never reviewed any of the films up to now, remains a mystery to me. Of course, I have included the first film as one of my all time favourite films in that particular list, but maybe its time I gave it and it's sequels a proper review in which I look at if it's still as good as it was back when it first came out and see if it has aged well. So let's grab our suits and gadgets and take care of some aliens (though hopefully without the need of the memory wiping device):
Men in Black
I should point out before going into this that despite the name and casting of Will Smith, this is not in any way a thing of racism or sexism. The name of the series refers to the fact that the titular organisation have all of its members wearing black suits and the "Men" part is more of an attachment thing than anything else as they do have female members in it too. So with that out of the way, let's talk about the first film. So the Earth depicted in these films is more or less like our own, but is also home to alien refugees of which the titular Men in Black act as the police of in terms of protecting them from potential threats whether it be human or alien as well as other things like stealing, GTA and other things. Humans overall do not know of the existence of both aliens and the Men in Black and its up to the Men in Black to make sure they are kept a secret from the world. How to join the organisation requires the individual to abandon their lives outside of Men in Black with their former identities erased. Agent K (played by Tommy Lee Jones) is in need of a new partner when Agent D (played by Richard Hamilton) becomes too old and allows his memory to be erased so that he can retire. Meanwhile, a NYPD officer who would later become Agent J (played by Will Smith), pursues a surprisingly agile being which impresses Agent K who just so happens to be nearby. After erasing his memory, J uses the business card that K leaves him and finds his way into Men in Black. Despite the odds against him, he wins over the organisation and becomes an official agent not long before he and K are sent out to protect a device called "The Galaxy" from a skin wearing hostile alien. The first film is to many the best one of the four films. It's got style, humour, great action sequences and at the time of its release, great visual effects and CGI. Those effects may look bad these days, but its aged reasonably well and is still a blast to watch 23 years later. 9/10
II
J is sent out to investigate a murder at the hands of a shape shifting alien that has taken the form of a Victoria's Secret model (played by Lara Flynn Boyle) and her two headed partner (played by Jackass's very own Johnny Knoxville). While investigating all possible leads and violating the rules of memory wiping, everything J finds points to his old partner and mentor K who has become a postmaster following his retirement from MiB (yeah I know this is a spoiler, but the film has been out for quite a while now). Upon finding him and recovering his memories, K laments that he erased his memories specifically to keep a potentially dangerous device known as the Light of Zartha a secret. With the two main villains out to find it and time being against them for the fate of the Earth, the pair team up once again to find the device before doom falls onto their Earth. While the concept of having the roles reversed is an interesting one, its one plot element that I have seen be used dozens of times in so many other films. But I guess when this film came out, it was something only a handful of other films have done at the time. But nowadays its something many films have used. Putting that aside, this film is an ok sequel. It manages to give us more of what the first film gave, but its just all too similar. The plot is similar, the idea of having to train up a retired agent is similar to how J was trained in the first film, plus a number of other issues. Is it a bad film? No not at all. Just could've been a better sequel and fortunately that is exactly what we got many years later. 7/10
III
This is that sequel and also one of the most expensive films ever made so of course a lot was riding on this. So an alien criminal known as Boris the Animal (played by Jemaine Clement) escapes from his prison and travels back in time to kill Agent K in order to allow his species to attack the Earth. With Agent J being the only one to remember of K, he learns from Agent O (played by Emma Thompson) that there is a fracture to the space and time continuum and that K deployed a device to protect the Earth from Boris's kind attacking it. But with him out of the picture, J has no choice but to use the same device he used to go back in time and stop him before its too late, teaming up with a younger K (played by Josh Brolin) in the process. I guess this film brings the story of J and K to a close as it ties up some loose ends, and we learn that J may have been aware of MiB for a much earlier age had his memory not be removed. But overall, it is a much better sequel with everything we are bound to expect from the series now and who knows. Maybe we will see them again, but for the time being, let's see how it's spin-off fares. 8/10
International
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This film begins with Agents H (played by Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth) and High T (played by a man known to kill things, Liam Neeson) of MiB's London branch being sent out to Paris to prevent an alien race known as the Hive from invading Earth and merging its own DNA with the dominant species. Meanwhile a girl who would later become Agent M (played by fellow Marvel star, Tessa Thompson) becomes aware of the existence of MiB after an encounter with an alien when she was little and somehow managed to avoid her memory being wiped. Desperate to join the organisation, she makes attempts to find them and eventually does so which makes Agent O curious. O then sees potential in her and makes her a probation agent by sending her to the London branch. She teams up with H and the pair go on a mission to prevent a crystal from being taken by the Hive who were long known to be dead apparently. During their mission, H must try to get out of his God Complex persona and there may be a traitor in their midst. Lots of people have called this the absolute worst film of the series and after seeing it myself, its clear as to why that is. Its the fourth instalment and I would expect it to at least try and do more great things for the franchise instead of more of the same. I also think its unimaginative that this film's "International" element would be going to the London branch which would be fine if every other spy film did something other than going all British. At least it should've tried venturing to other branches like say an Australian one. But it does live up to its name elsewhere with the cast and crew being of British, American, Irish and Australian descent and the fact that they do travel across the world in the film. But overall, its not a great MiB film. Lots of problems with it, but it does have good visuals, a well acted cast and possibly other great things to. It just needed to spend a bit more time on actually being international rather than do what every other spy film have done. 7/10
So there you have it. Another film series where only the first film is the best one. But that's OK because when you make a weak film, most would learn from it and try and make a better film next time. So if you are wanting a mix of sci-fi and espionage, then yes you will get both here. The execution of it may be tiresome later on, but its worth the effort at least. 7/10
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