If
there’s anything as certain as death and taxes, it’s Hollywood’s propensity to
reboot, remake or otherwise “update” past movie franchises that had enjoyed
even a modicum of success. So it is that
the ‘Men in Black’ trilogy starring “fresh prince of Bel Air” Will Smith and
fugitive-catching lawman Tommy Lee Jones gets a modern makeover in ‘Men in
Black: International’ after a seven-year hiatus. Alas, despite the fact that the original
trilogy generated over $1.7 billion globally and made a healthy profit, this
latest iteration sputtered badly at the box office on opening weekend with a
domestic take of just under $40 million and $118 million worldwide on a budget
of over $100 million, not including at least that much in marketing/advertising
which makes it that much harder to break even.
‘MIB:International’
takes the highly secretive ”alien management” organization based on a lesser
Marvel/Malibu Comics title to Europe, England and France to be specific. Well, maybe it wasn’t so highly secretive
after all considering how its newest recruit, Molly Wright (“Agent M” played by
Tessa Thompson), discovered its existence and managed to blackmail her way into
this exclusive “boy’s club.” Tomfoolery
and high-jinks in equal measure ensue as she and her partner, the dashing and cocky
“Agent H” (Chris Hemsworth), embark on a globe-trotting adventure trying to
save earth from the threat of “The Hive,” a sinister and parasitic alien race
which infiltrates planets by combining with the DNA of native species.
While
it retained the light-hearted “fun” of the original MIB trilogy, 'MIB:International' doesn’t
really offer anything fresh or new despite Hemsworth’s and Thompson’s best
efforts to infuse new life into the franchise.
I’m sure at the time the big-wigs in Hollywood thought they can’t go
wrong by pairing two of Hollywood’s hottest young actors in this movie, the
same ones who played Thor and Valkyrie in the MCU no less. Sorry, but the audience didn’t bite this time.
Grade: C+
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