Men In Black International

[VoR]

Reboot of the Will Smith/Tommy Lee Jones franchise with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.



My God, this was absolutely terrible. Not even in a fun train-wreck kind of way, the whole thing just felt completely threadbare and half-hearted. It truly felt like nobody involved with it at any level gave the slightest fuck, which is bizarre for a major franchise revival like this.

The tone was so weird in that absolutely none of the jokes landed in a way that almost felt sad - I'd compare it to watching a bad standup comic die on their arse for 120 minutes. I've never wanted to slow-handclap the end of a movie before.

 

[dUb]

Yikes.

The mooted 21 Jump Street crossover would have been a much better way to go

 

[VoR]

I like Chris Hemsworth a lot, but he really seems like he's sleepwalking through this one. Not that I blame him, the script is abysmal. I don't think he gets a single funny or interesting line of dialogue.

 

[dUb]

I did think it looked shit from the trailer

Anything with L*am N**son I'll gladly avoid anyway

Is there a SONG?

 

[VoR]

Not that I noticed. I didn't actually notice the soundtrack in any way at all - another bizarre choice considering the original.

 

[VoR]

Ah, this explains a lot...

The film went through a troubled production due to frequent clashes between director Gray and producer Parkes, which started when the executive overseeing the project, Sony's executive vice president of production David Beaubaire, exited the studio in the summer of 2018 and was never replaced. An early draft of the script, which Sony initially praised and got the attention of stars Hemsworth and Thompson, had an edgier tone than the finished film and featured sociopolitical commentary on the current debate surrounding immigration. The main antagonists were to be an alien music group inspired by The Beatles, with the four members merging into one villain during the climax. Parkes, who had final cut on the film, had a heavy hand in overseeing rewrites during pre-production and filming. Parkes' new script pages stripped away the early draft's more modern sensibilities and arrived daily for Hemsworth and Thompson, who were both so confused that they hired their own dialogue writers. Parkes not only dictated rewrites but also stepped in on directing duties, although no Directors Guild of America rules were said to have been violated. Gray tried to exit the production several times but was convinced to stay by Sony. Parkes and Gray also clashed over the color-correction process during post-production. The studio tested two cuts — one put together by Gray, the other by Parkes — with the version by Parkes being chosen as the theatrical cut.

 

[Ellie]

It wasn’t any worse than Men In Black 2 & 3 so I’m unsure what people were expecting

 

[rhythmbandit]

This was just completely unremarkable in every possible way, no soundtrack song either and I stayed to see if there was a post-credit sequence but it was just standard dull credits.

Emma Thompson was vastly underused, Liam Neeson's delivery of his lines were terrible.

I did appreciate the painting of Agents J&K though as they clearly didn't want to cameo.