Review 52: Men in Black II
Set five years after the events of Men in Black, Agent Jay (Will Smith) has become a high-ranking member of MIB while his former cohort, Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones), had his memory wiped clean and now lives a simple but contented life as a mailman.
However, when Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) a shape-shifting Kylothian alien disguised as a lingerie model threatens the survival of the human race, J gets the call to step up and get busy.
With MIB HQ under siege and time running out, there is only one person that J can turn to - his former MIB partner K.
The plot is practically a carbon copy of the first film. Very much like Home Alone 2 & Ghostbusters II, it repeats all the plot points and conventions. Much like the first there's a bug (on in this case plant) like alien search for some sort of sci fi MacGuffin that endangers the whole world and is in the possession of an unassuming bystander. At the beginning of the film the lead MIB agent (Agent J) Neuralyes his current partner and spends the movie searching for a new one (who just happens to be his former partner), the film even opens with J dealing with a rogue alien, just like a K in the first film.
It's exactly the same as the first film, but rushed and bad!
Given that the first film set up a world where the possibilities for a sequel were endless, of all the ideas about where they could take the series next, this movie goes for the most uninspired and dull.
It also feels very rushed and overall pretty disposable. The set up is extremely sloppy and lame, the execution is relentlessly predictable and the characters have personalities that would distinguish characters from bad Disney cartoons.
Totting on a paper thin premise of a race against time to save the world from destruction,
Everything looks cheap and leftover from the first film. Heavy on the jokes and light on the story - what little there is.
Returning director Barry Sonnenfeld's direction is weak, the cinematography is dreary and lacks texture and sparkle, the special effects are low rent even for $140 million, the production design and costumes are just average, most of the alien designs are unispired and lack Rick Baker imagination and lunacy. The action scenes are dull, the jokes and gags are really sophmorphic, the score by Danny Elfman is striking and a few of the alien designs are cool though.
The acting is mostly lacklustre, Agent J is now a fully fledged MIB agent yet he constantly acts inexperienced and borderline incompetent without K to guide him and as a result comes off as a more stupid version of Johnny English giving Will Smith very little to sink his teeth into on round 2.
Tommy Lee Jones for the most part sleepwalks through the role of Agent K. His return is entirely contrived and serves mainly as a thinly veiled excuse to advance the film to the next plot point ASAP. His role literally amounts to a walking, talking plot point as he apparently has knowledge on the films Macguffin.
Lara Flynn Boyle as Serleena makes for a terrible villain. She's not menacing, she's not intimidating, she's not interesting
As for Rosario Dawson as Laura, while she is cute, her character ultimately amounts to little more than just the obligatory love interest as well as a living MacGuffin. She doesn't much more of an impression than that. Laura is just a very thin character who basically amounts to a plot device.
Rip Torn, Johnny Knoxville, Tony Shalhoub, Patrick Warburton, David Cross show in smaller roles
Men in Black II isn't one of the worst sequels ever made but its just a sequel that doesn't work. Mainly the problem is not that its to similar to the first movie but its kind of boring, nonetheless I still look forward to the third film coming out soon, 2/5.
The Anonymous Critic
It also feels very rushed and overall pretty disposable. The set up is extremely sloppy and lame, the execution is relentlessly predictable and the characters have personalities that would distinguish characters from bad Disney cartoons.
Totting on a paper thin premise of a race against time to save the world from destruction,
Everything looks cheap and leftover from the first film. Heavy on the jokes and light on the story - what little there is.
Returning director Barry Sonnenfeld's direction is weak, the cinematography is dreary and lacks texture and sparkle, the special effects are low rent even for $140 million, the production design and costumes are just average, most of the alien designs are unispired and lack Rick Baker imagination and lunacy. The action scenes are dull, the jokes and gags are really sophmorphic, the score by Danny Elfman is striking and a few of the alien designs are cool though.
The acting is mostly lacklustre, Agent J is now a fully fledged MIB agent yet he constantly acts inexperienced and borderline incompetent without K to guide him and as a result comes off as a more stupid version of Johnny English giving Will Smith very little to sink his teeth into on round 2.
Tommy Lee Jones for the most part sleepwalks through the role of Agent K. His return is entirely contrived and serves mainly as a thinly veiled excuse to advance the film to the next plot point ASAP. His role literally amounts to a walking, talking plot point as he apparently has knowledge on the films Macguffin.
Lara Flynn Boyle as Serleena makes for a terrible villain. She's not menacing, she's not intimidating, she's not interesting
As for Rosario Dawson as Laura, while she is cute, her character ultimately amounts to little more than just the obligatory love interest as well as a living MacGuffin. She doesn't much more of an impression than that. Laura is just a very thin character who basically amounts to a plot device.
Rip Torn, Johnny Knoxville, Tony Shalhoub, Patrick Warburton, David Cross show in smaller roles
Men in Black II isn't one of the worst sequels ever made but its just a sequel that doesn't work. Mainly the problem is not that its to similar to the first movie but its kind of boring, nonetheless I still look forward to the third film coming out soon, 2/5.
The Anonymous Critic
Comments
Post a Comment