{"id":7474,"date":"2019-06-12T14:26:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-12T18:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7474"},"modified":"2019-06-12T15:51:16","modified_gmt":"2019-06-12T19:51:16","slug":"review-men-in-black-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/?p=7474","title":{"rendered":"Review: MEN IN BLACK: INTERNATIONAL"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Familiar and just plain fine, this \u201cMIB\u201d reboot receives a passing grade.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s face it, most classic science fiction is sexist, if not outright misogynist. And Hollywood, more or less, knows it. With the coming Denis Villeneuve adaptation of Frank Herbert\u2019s \u201cDune,\u201d it will be interesting to see how the women characters are handled. Herbert\u2019s novel ends with a provocative moment in which the hero, Paul Muad\u2019Dib, explains flatly that he will retain his concubine, who gave birth to his late child, and take a princess in a loveless, sexless marriage. It\u2019s not surprising that Villeneuve was announced to helm the pilot of the \u201cDune: The Sisterhood.\u201d

In most of Herbert\u2019s landmark novel, women are largely subjugated and abused, even the ones with the voice and other magical talents. Such is the stuff that serves as the building blocks of classic hard and fantastical science fiction. God forbid that Robert Heinlein\u2019s \u201cStranger in a Strange Land\u201d ever gets a blockbuster makeover.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tessa Thompson steals the show as the brainy Agent M.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So, into this #metoo era, strides a summer tentpole bearing the \u201cMen in Black\u201d brand, which is another adaptation of the Malibu\/Aircel Comics material. Those comics owe a debt to the decades of science fiction that came before, and trade on our built-in fascination with little green men. The \u201cMIB\u201d films previous to this latest installment have comically dealt with the male dominated agency by colorfully winking as the female characters shrug it off sarcastically. The irony is that the villains in the \u201cMIB\u201d universe tend to be women, or aliens in female form, and \u201cInternational\u201d is no different. But this time, the movie\u2019s central protagonist, Agent M, is played by Tessa Thompson, who dons the agency issued attire and plays straight-man to Chris Hemsworth\u2019s irresistibly sexy Agent H.

And to \u201cInternational\u2019s\u201d credit, Hemsworth\u2019s chiseled physique is ogled in an impossibly sexist fashion, thereby attempting to provide some small measure of gender parity. It\u2019s all played for jokes, while Agent M employs her significant brain power to save the day. As a star vehicle for Thompson, you can\u2019t get much better than this. Valkyrie standalone feature anyone?

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Liam Neeson as High T imparts some learned advice to Agent M.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The story here is set in the \u201cMIB\u201d universe, of which viewers should already be acquainted. However, I was surprised learn when I took my 15-year-old daughter to the press screening that she had never seen any of the prior films. The original \u201cMIB\u201d was released in 1997, so, it is likely that a large number of potential viewers fall into my daughter\u2019s category. Thankfully, this new film can be watched, and enjoyed without seeing the prior movies. It will help, though, to have, at least, a passing understanding of how things are set up.

The Men in Black are a secret organization that keeps the balance between the alien universe and Earth. Agent H is a star employee having saved Earth from an invading horde known as the Hive back in 2016. His partner at the time was High T (Liam Neeson), and their victory is heralded by the agency. While the previous \u201cMIB\u201d installments were concerned with the agency in the United States, Agent H and High T are members of the London office. High T is the director.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hemsworth and Thompson make a good team.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After searching for the Men in Black since she was a child, Agent M finally manages to infiltrate her way into the US agency, and leader Agent O (Emma Thompson) decides to give M a shot as a probationary agent. This leads M to London, where she becomes H\u2019s partner. M\u2019s training is kept pretty loose, so she has to learn how to be an agent on the job. Naturally, her indoctrination into the alien\/human world is comical.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The diminutive Pawny (voiced by Kumail Nanjuani) is a good sidekick.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the joys of the \u201cMIB\u201d films is how nonchalantly the alien creatures are introduced. The central conceit is that there are aliens secreted among us. It\u2019s the ones you\u2019d least suspect that are hiding their other worldly identities. And even when the creatures are at their wildest, the agents remain calm, equipped with a ray gun and a neutralizer to take care of business. It\u2019s the neutralizer that is their most useful tool, because one zap of that and they can erase all memory of the presence of an alien race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMen in Black: International\u201d is light, family friendly-entertainment. For those viewers still reeling and wiping away tears from their \u201cAvengers: Endgame\u201d experience, here\u2019s a movie with the aim to merely make you smile. It\u2019s fun and often good-natured, as Agent M gets her MIB education and Agent H dances into her and every other woman he meets heart. The simplistic, even inane plot is irrelevant, M and H are keepers and are, hopefully, up for other adventures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rather weightless \u201cMIB\u201d sequel can\u2019t fix the sci-fi misogynistic problem, but as long as strong actresses like Thompson are given meaningful lead roles, things are headed in the right direction.

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thompson and Hemsworth team up to wear the black suits in MIB reboot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[318,1537,1548,1549,104,407],"class_list":["post-7474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-chris-hemsworth","tag-men-in-black","tag-men-in-black-international","tag-mib","tag-science-fiction","tag-tessa-thompson","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7482,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7474\/revisions\/7482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}