Men in Black: International

RATING: C+

Here's another 2019 movie franchise follow-up that didn't necessarily need to happen: a Men in Black "spin-off," of sorts. While I wouldn't necessarily have been completely opposed to another MIB movie with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, apparently they're too expensive now (or Smith is, at least--he sat out Independence Day 2 for the same reason). So instead we end up taking the focus to the British branch of MIB, where this time our leads are... Thor and Valkyrie from Thor: Ragnarok.

Despite the fact that this is still kind of an attempted cash grab (which failed), it's not a concept without promise. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson leading the way, who already have good chemistry with each other, at the London division of MIB, with Liam Neeson added in? Surely they couldn't screw that up, right?

Well, they don't necessarily screw it up--but it still does fall short of its potential. Much of the problems revolve around some of the same issues from prior movies. Here's the thing about MIB movies: you probably barely remember the actual plots or bad guys from any of them. The central conflict has never been something that stood out about these movies (except *maybe* the third one). It was always the setting and the two juggernaut leads riffing off each other that worked, as well as some of the humor (though that could be hit-or-miss too at times).

That's all more or less par for the course here. This time, we're dealing with a new alien species called the Hive that could destroy the world. Agent H (Hemsworth) and High T (Neeson) stopped them years ago, but they may be coming back--if the appearance of two powerful energy beings with Hive mutations is any indication. And guess what? There's another ultimate weapon in the equation. Oh yeah, and there may be a mole in the MIB organization as well--that's something new, I guess.

The final result is one that isn't always comprehensible but is still entertaining at times. There's a couple good action scenes--the highlight is probably the extended sequence on Rebecca Ferguson's arms dealer island. There's some funny moments here and there as well. And Hemsworth and Thompson do play well off each other, even if they could've been given better material to work with. Liam Neeson's presence is always welcome as well.

Aside from the occasionally head-scratching plot, there's nothing inherently bad about this--certainly nothing as bad as Men in Black 2's lowest points (even with a few eye-rolling lines in the script). The issue is that there's not much to write home about either. The movie tries to stand out in its franchise, but at its core it's still generally the same old Men in Black with different leads. And all things considered... that's not a bad thing, but that's not good enough to make it stand out either.

Still, it's a generally harmless pastime of a movie that one might be okay with if they've liked the previous movies as a whole. It's not going to blow anyone away and many will probably be wishing that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were still here. And they do have a point. This isn't really a movie that needed to exist. But it's not the worst the franchise has to offer either.