MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL Reviews Point To A Mediocre Sequel That Brings Nothing New To The Table

The review embargo for Men in Black: International has now lifted, & while it doesn't sound like the sci-fi comedy sequel is going to be completely lambasted by critics, the reception is not great so far.

By MarkCassidy - Jun 12, 2019 07:06 AM EST

Filed Under: Men in Black

The trailers for Men in Black: International didn't exactly succeed in getting fans hyped for the fourth installment in the sci-fi comedy franchise, but the (re)pairing of Thor: Ragnarok stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson ensured some good will, and people seemed ready to give the film the benefit of the doubt.

Now, the embargo has lifted, and while it doesn't look like MIBI is going to be a critical washout like Dark Phoenix, most of the reviews do suggest that we're in for a fairly bland retread of the earlier movies.

Check out some excerpts from the first wave of reviews below, and let us know if you plan on seeing Men in Black: International in theaters.

Image result for men in black international

You can take out all sorts of things and replace them with shiny new alternatives, and the result might look like a perfectly functional film with some nice special effects and tight action sequences. But if the heart and the humour of the original is lost, and you don't replace it with anything remarkable, you'll end up with a film like Men In Black: International. It may be a Men In Black film on paper, but the soul of the series is missing and the experience of watching it is mostly a letdown. Has anyone got a neuralyzer?

SOURCE: Den of Geek

Coming seven years after the humourless MIB3 and blessed with neither of its stars, Men In Black: International arrives as possibly the least essential film of the summer. And yet, despite a throwaway story and slightly indulgent runtime (Sonnenfeld never strayed far from the 90-minute mark), H&M prove surprisingly engaging company.

SOURCE: Empire

International is better than Men in Black II and worse than Men in Black III, and they’re all bad, so erase this sentence from your memory. This fourquel’s a special bummer, because Thompson and Hemsworth shined together in 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. Hemsworth reimagined his epic hero as a cheerful doofball with a busted hammer, letting Thompson dominate as a charisma firebomb on a millennia-deep bender. A good idea to reunite them, and that’s it for International‘s good ideas.

SOURCE: EW

Fans of the series know that the sunglasses only go on when the neutralizer’s about to zap some poor sap’s recollection of past events. “Men in Black: International” aims to erase any memory that you’ve seen all this before, but only leaves you with the hazy sense of deja vu, and the lingering conviction that the last time was a whole lot better.

SOURCE: Indiewire

All the sprightliness that Hemsworth showed in the Avengers movies and in the Ghostbusters remake is nowhere to be found: both script and direction mean that the spark isn’t there, and Thompson has no real chance to shine. It’s time to wave the neuralyzer in the face of every executive involved and murmur softly: forget about this franchise.

SOURCE: The Guardian

That frenetic plotting, combined with workmanlike direction from F. Gary Gray (a once-exciting filmmaker who brings as little to this film as he did to The Fate of the Furious), overwhelms whatever natural spark Hemsworth and Thompson might have had together.

SOURCE: The Atlantic

Men in Black: International will not be the best movie you see this year. There are plot issues, character arcs go unfinished, and the ending felt rushed. But it’s still a campy, cool sci-fi spy thriller—one that coasts on the natural charisma of Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth, who may be one of this generation’s best comedic duos.

SOURCE: Io9

Disrupting the proven rapport between two naturally charismatic actors in an adventure indifferent to the series’ premise, director F. Gary Gray (The Fate of the Furious) assembles a noisy, rushed, overlong, deeply unsatisfying spinoff that lacks good characters, a coherent story, or even just the fun energy of its forebears.

SOURCE: Nerdist

Eye-catching stop-offs in Paris, Marrakech and Ischia give MIB:I a scale missing in earlier instalments, while Kumail Nanjiani has fun voicing a diminutive alien chesspiece. For all its globe-trotting, desert-blasting and hoverbike-riding, however, there’s little here that justifies prolonging a series that should probably have been Neuralyzed a couple of movies ago.

SOURCE: Total Film

The best thing about the revamped Men in Black series is actually a woman. Stepping in after three very successful entries starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones for this reboot, Tessa Thompson shines brightly alongside her Thor: Ragnorak co-star Chris Hemsworth as Agents M and H, who set off to surreptitiously thwart yet another alien assault on world order, such as it is.

SOURCE: THR

The degree to which Men in Black International wastes Hemsworth and Thompson’s talents — and in the process almost makes them seem like bland, uninteresting actors, despite all the previous evidence to the contrary — is almost an accomplishment in and of itself, and the rest of the film is equally pointless (not to mention long, at just under 120 minutes).

SOURCE: Screen Crush

The new “pet” alien is the sole survivor of a tiny race caught up in the mayhem, a hamster-sized palace guard named “Pawn” (“Pawnie” to his new pals) and voiced, to amusing effect, by Kumail Nanjiani of “The Big Sick.” Not amusing enough, but that’s kind of what we’re dealing with, here.

SOURCE: Toolbag Nation

Men in Black: International may be the new go-to example of “IP reboot that fails despite talent you otherwise like trying their best to make it memorable.” It happens every few years, and despite a few of them otherwise succeeding at being good movies in and of themselves (like Ghostbusters: Answer the Call in 2016 or Power Rangers in 2017 or Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich in 2018), the end result is always the same: forgotten down the corporate and cultural memory hole until a few years have passed and another reboot is configured from new fads to once again cash in on hopefully riper nostalgia.

SOURCE: Midwest Film Journal

One of the film’s most engaging traits is its absolute inanity. It is not trying to hold up a dark mirror to humanity and to make points about pollution, destruction or political persecution. Instead, the main intention is to serve up chases, slapstick and knockabout comedy.

SOURCE: Independent

Men in Black: International doesn’t much care about being a Men in Black movie, but did they ever? Squishing aliens with a shrug – splat, forget, move on – has been the name of the game since the original pairing of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones delivered the smash hit of 1997.

SOURCE: Telegraph

That lack of tension pervades the entirety of International. It feels like Men In Black by numbers, a trudge from one set-piece to the next untidily glued together by weak gags and sharp suits, never getting us to care about its characters or the world-changing stakes. In fact, like the first film’s Bug bad guy, it feels as though something unfamiliar is wearing Men In Black’s skin - except what’s inside is, somehow, just really dull.

SOURCE: IGN

For the most part, Tessa Thompson shines in an otherwise uninspired and mostly unfunny reboot that really doesn’t give much hope for the future of this franchise.

SOURCE: Weekend Warrior

The world feels right, at least, but Men in Black: International is never as fun or as thrilling as it should be for an action-comedy. You won't want to neuralyze it from your brain, but in truth, it probably won't linger that long anyway.

SOURCE: Digital Spy

Gray takes few chances narratively, providing the viewer a fairly standard blueprint of where the film is going to go. That said, Holloway & Marcum utilize the rules of the franchise well, incorporating a couple of twists that feel fresh if not altogether unexpected. The camera clearly loves Tessa Thompson, continuing to promise a bright future for the young actress. As for Hemsworth, here’s hoping he continues to play funny. This is breezy stuff, a welcome respite in the hot summer months.

SOURCE: The Film Stage

“Recognizable as only déjà vu, and dismissed just as quickly,” pretty much summarizes the newest installment in the interminable Men in Black franchise.

SOURCE: 812 Film Review

Will Smith Recalls How Steven Spielberg Convinced Him To Make MEN IN BLACK

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122 Comments

1 2 3 4

WakandanQueen - 6/12/2019, 7:34 AM

A good reason to watch Endgame again this weekend.

knocturnalzen10 - 6/12/2019, 8:26 AM

@WakandanQueen - i just burst out laughing so loud in my office lol

whatever it takes

Forthas - 6/12/2019, 7:38 AM

This duo have teased doing a remake of "The Bodyguard"...although I think they were joking!

Spock0Clock - 6/12/2019, 7:42 AM

@Forthas - I assume that Hemsworth is Whitney and Thompson is Costner. Did anyone else?

WakandanQueen - 6/12/2019, 7:49 AM

@Spock0Clock - I can't wait for Hemmy's covers of I Will Always Love You and I Have Nothing.

GeneralZod - 6/12/2019, 7:39 AM

"most of the reviews do suggest that we're in for a fairly bland retread of the earlier movies."

LimeD - 6/12/2019, 1:29 PM

@GeneralZod -

DeadClunge - 6/12/2019, 7:41 AM

Mrcool210 - 6/12/2019, 7:42 AM

I mean I'll take a "mediocre sequel" Over MIB 2 anyday. There was only one good joke in that whole movie.

bkmeijer2 - 6/12/2019, 8:00 AM

@Mrcool210 - Alright, that was indeed pretty funny. Thank you for this laugh

LimeD - 6/12/2019, 1:40 PM

@Mrcool210 -

Spock0Clock - 6/12/2019, 7:46 AM

Hemsworth and Thompson aren't taking the beating, so I guess that's a good thing.

DoubleD - 6/12/2019, 7:48 AM

2019 the Summer of Blockbusters Flops.

We all know Spiderman Far From Home will be a Blockbuster at least :)

WakandanQueen - 6/12/2019, 7:50 AM

@DoubleD - Toy Story 4, Far From Home, The Lion King & Hobbs and Shaw will all make money. Anything else is debatable.

DoubleD - 6/12/2019, 7:56 AM

@WakandanQueen - 2019 The Summer of Disney :)

soberchimera - 6/12/2019, 8:18 AM

@WakandanQueen - Was I supposed to be laughing my ass off during the Hobbs & Shaw trailer?

DoubleD - 6/12/2019, 8:29 AM

@soberchimera - These two NEVER fail the audience for action.

lawndart - 6/12/2019, 8:59 AM

@soberchimera - Wow! This looks like a fun movie. Like the 80s are back!

soberchimera - 6/12/2019, 9:52 AM

@lawndart - The 80s films you watched must have had a LOT of CGI.

tmp3 - 6/12/2019, 10:01 AM

@WakandanQueen - Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?!?!?

Chewtoy - 6/12/2019, 7:52 AM

It’s never a good thing when the trailer for an upcoming action comedy has no real jokes in it.

Another reminder that Marvel just makes this stuff *look* easy.

IronGenesis - 6/12/2019, 7:52 AM

You have to wonder how many more chances C. hemsworth will get at Non-MCU Projects.

Seems like they have all failed.

“The good guys dress in black, remember that
Just in case we ever face to face and make contact
The title held by me, MIB
Means what you think you saw, you did not see
So don't blink be what was there is now gone
The black suits with the black Ray Bans on
Walk in shadow, move in silence”

WakandanQueen - 6/12/2019, 7:56 AM

@IronGenesis - It sucks that Rush and El Royale weren't hits. He was electrifying in both.

bkmeijer2 - 6/12/2019, 7:59 AM

@WakandanQueen - Gotta agree with you on that one. Especially El Royale was a weird but cool one

HeraldNumber7 - 6/12/2019, 8:43 AM

@WakandanQueen -

it's tough because his presence forces him into being a leading man when all of his talents point to him being better suited as a character actor. yet, since studios don't as often focus on smaller scale projects that will allow him to flourish, he has to find his place in these blockbuster duds...

Battabing - 6/12/2019, 10:10 AM

@IronGenesis - I've been saying Hollywood should stop trying to make the Hemsworths happen. They're not happening.

1 2 3 4

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