hello everyone welcome back for another non-spoiler review this time around
we're talking about the new men in black movie, MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL
I'm Perri Nemiroff this is John Rocha, and this movie stars Tessa Thompson and Chris
Hemsworth so what did you think Rocha were they the perfect pair to continue
the men in black ranch I know we have their chemistry from The Avengers films
and you hope it translates into this and there was a little bit of it in the
trailer but when you're watching the movie I I think they still have a nice
working relationship unfortunately the movie itself is underwhelming and just
okay when I've really enjoyed this franchise's be as having its tongue
firmly planted in his cheek in this one they kind of removed the whole point of
men and black and then it becomes like some kind of vessel for entertaining
foreign alien species dignitaries and I just kind of got lost in that and so
their chemistry couldn't really save the movie for me even though it popped up
really well in certain scenes I actually think their chemistry might
have saved it for I think they kept me just entertained enough especially when
you add in to the equation Kumail Nanjiani 'he's character pawnee - look I
wasn't loving him when they first introduced in the first scene he had I'm
like oh this is gonna be awful and then all of a sudden he fell into step with
them in a way that I found kind of charming and I found the two of them
kind of charming together but the bigger problems with this Men in Black movie
are just their their execution D related I mean even the very first hand-to-hand
combat scene we got in this movie was just like so poorly shot if he's mind
boggling there was no sense of geography whatsoever certain scenes in this movie
feel like they're cut abruptly short there are so many story points in this
that make absolutely no sense whatsoever so this is nowhere near a spoiler but
one of my favorite parts of the movie was
Tessa Thompson's characters journey ancient m-molly she's injured
protagonist yeah she definitely is and what happened to her at the beginning of
her life and what put her on this path to find the men in black I loved that
idea there are just so many questions about it though and even when she gets
to MIB it's like we completely lose why her
journey began to begin with and I also have
one major burning question which is you know she professes at the very beginning
of the movie that I've got nothing to lose I'm the perfect men in black
potential employee because I've got nothing else around me Nura lysing
someone doesn't kill them her parents exist right somewhere out there no we
don't know and they couldn't have forgotten about her I don't know that
just seemed like too much of like a distinct break there that didn't make
much sense to me well I think you bring up a great point Perry because you
attach this the other things going on with her throughout the movie there is
no conflict for her to overcome this is what I found to be frustrating
throughout the movie is that she's the protagonist but she has no conflict she
has a journey but there's really no confidence she has to overcome in order
to understand she's searching for the truth of the universe okay what does
that mean but then you get into this other stuff with with Chris Hemsworth
character with Liam Neeson these are relationships that are handed to us but
not really fleshed out or explored or investigated so much that the audience
can be invested in their relationship and Tess's Thompson's Tessa Thompson is
really a she walks into this situation so I think a lot of things are just
handed to us and we move from scene to scene to scene and I think you're right
things are missing connective tissue between these scenes that would keep us
invested in the movie overall it is really unfortunate that the relationship
between agent H Chris Hemsworth's character and high tea at Liam Neeson's
character is so kind of undercooked yeah cuz the villain elements of this movie
does not work at all I was not following that I did not care about that it didn't
matter what part of the story we were in it never worked for me from start to
finish the only thing that gave that hope was their relationship their
experiences in the beginning of the film meant for what happened throughout but
all they ever did the entire time was simply state we have a father-son like
relationship I'm always looking at you're always looking out for me and you
never felt it not for a single second throughout the entire thing yeah I mean
if you look at the previous three men in black movies they all had a villain that
you could identify with and understand D'Onofrio Laura Flynn Boyle and in the
third one as well going back in time to figure out what that situation is to
repair it but in this one it's some nebulous thing that you never really get
a human connection to and then the twist at the end is so predictable that you're
just like okay there's nothing really to save it at the end I got so excited one
Rebecca Ferguson just showed up and then all of a sudden I got so sad for her
yeah what what what was that exactly was that a game that came up out of nowhere
it served so little purpose she looked ridiculous yeah there's someone compared
to see you with extra arms oh it doesn't really work and then you ask yourself
well why do you take apart like this and so you wonder at the end of the movie
there might have you said there might have been more on the cutting room floor
he loved her that would have fleshed that character out as well and then even
when we move over to things like VFX it was so incredibly disappointing I
thought certain things looked good enough that I was able to get used to
them I thought some of the aliens looked way too cartoonish and just didn't work
in the real world whatsoever again pawnee is one that I definitely got used
to as the movie went along but I think my bigger problem with the VFX was the
the set design the scenery every single time they were in a digitally created
environment that's all I could think about the entire time was Tessa Thompson
and Chris Hemsworth sitting in a box of green screen and something built around
them and it was driving me nuts and at times you could see them kind of
mimicking what they were doing around the CGI that they added later and it
felt unnatural as opposed to organic but I will say this I did enjoy Tessa's
performance i am i enjoyed Chris Hemsworth Liam Neeson like you cannot
argue about the acting in this movie nobody is acting badly necessarily in
this movie even Rebecca's limited time on screen is there's only so much there
that you can't really fully judge how she does but everyone else I mean I was
engaged only because Tessa was so great unless
rapes Paula Miller even though his character was was fairly cookie-cutter
but I did I did appreciating him yeah yeah pretty much
I'm getting so like frustrated and and a little disappointed right now because it
seems like I was talking a little bit about this with Angie Hahn from Mashable
last night after the movie it's like the summer of mediocrity because I think
about all of the the major criticisms I have about this
movie but when I pare it down to just entertainment value I'm not gonna lie
and say even though I pinpoint all these things that make me a little angry
because a movie with this kind of budget in this kind of franchise backing and
this kind of star power should be so much better than this but I was
entertained and I only pacing wise only spotted one lull in the middle of the
movie and it was right around when Pawnee was introduced yeah where I
started to check out a little but you know I I kind of was entertained most of
the time and I'm getting so frustrated in myself by saying that because I think
there is great value in sheer entertainment value in a movie but we we
deserve better from these franchises especially when I think about what's
come out in recent weeks this movie should have been better there was so
much creative potential there's such a great cast list right here F gary Gray
is a direct where is your style what happened here yeah I think maybe you've
seen this with this and the fast the fast eight movie
I think these larger movies are maybe out of the wheelhouse of F gary Gray and
something like straight out of Compton which is a smaller more contained movie
is where he can do his best work I liken that to Shane black you brought shame
black outside put him into a franchise you don't get the great magic that you
get when he's kind of a more limited budget and limited toolbox so I think
the same thing with F gary Gray I'm not exactly mad but I was disappointed and a
little frustrated that it wasn't better because this is technically a fourth
installment and you want this if you're gonna soft reboot it to be to have a
little more magic and it really didn't have it yeah all right the time has come
yeah you first yeah okay I give it a 6 like it's watchable its watchable but
and you'll enjoy the performances but you might not enjoy the movie overall I
feel like a broken record I feel like I'm just gonna wind up giving every like
live action blockbuster this summer as 6/10 which is my like barely pass all
that you know I've obviously isolated a whole bunch of problems with this movie
but I definitely didn't walk out saying oh I wasted my two hours right I had fun
in there was in a pretty good mood on the way home I'm just a little
disappointed that when you have talent like this and you have the opportunity
to breathe new life in to a franchise a franchise that I really
loved growing up it is so unfortunate that this is what wound up happening
with if there was so much more you could have done like you could have had so
many more like timely jokes a fun banter between the two of them and so many of
those jokes just land with a thud yeah and the topical element of aliens coming
into our world the idea of immigration the idea of incorporate and do your
fighting for everyone the even the Ellis there's an Ellis Island reference and
you're like why wasn't this explored so in the previous films it had been so
hopefully they maybe take their lessons maybe this does okay in the box office
and if there's a second war next one they take the lessons and fix it
we shall see but while we wait to see what happens with this at the box office
we turn it to you guys men and black international if and when you see it
this weekend do tell us what you think do you think it's passable or not so
good we do want to know your thoughts so hit the comments section below and as
always like and share this review roca thank you for being here we are gonna
see you soon with more movie reviews