Men in Black: International
Director: F. Gary Gray
Writer: Matt Holloway, Art Marcum
Based on: Lowell Cunningham‘s comic
Sequel to: Men in Black, Men in Black II, Men in Black III
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Kumail Nanjiani, Rebecca Ferguson, Rafe Spall, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson
Seen on: 19.6.2019

Plot:
When she was just a little child, Molly (Tessa Thompson) had an encounter with an alien and the Men in Black. She has been trying to find out more about the organization ever since. One night, she finally hits gold and manages to find a MiB investigation in real time, following it to the MiB headquarters where she is finally uncovered. She can even convince Agent O (Emma Thompson) to let her work there on a probationary basis. Molly, now Agent M, is sent to London where she starts to work with Agent H (Chris Hemsworth). The two soon realize that there is a threat to the MiB – and it may not be alien, but coming from the inside of the organization.

Men in Black: International is fun and nice enough to watch. It’s probably the best MiB since the first, though still a couple of leagues behind that one. I enjoyed it, but I’m not too excited about it.

You probably can’t go very wrong when you choose Chris Hemsworth and (especially) Tessa Thompson to play your leads. Those two are great on their own, but together they are awesome. Simply good chemistry. They are the heart and backbone of the film that wouldn’t have worked without them.

Other actors weren’t as lucky in the film. Emma Thompson is utterly wasted (what a pity), and Rafe Spall is at least half-wasted. The plot, that very much plays on “curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal” and doesn’t surprise at all, also doesn’t ask too much of the audience (that’s okay), just doesn’t have that much room for all the good actors the film assembled.

As I said, I liked it better than the second (the nadir of the series) or the third MiB film, but it doesn’t even get close to the first one. It has a couple of very fun ideas, a plot that is more a loosely connected than you’d expect and only about 20% of jokes that they probably shouldn’t have made.

So, it is a fine watch and entertaining enough while it lasts, but it probably doesn’t have much staying power, at least not in my head. At least I didn’t regret watching it at all.

Summarizing: entertaining.