In the 90s Will Smith could do no wrong similar to Jim Carrey and with Men in Black he showed us he could be a real Hollywood actor. He made MIB a household name because lets face it no one read the comics or ever will. As a comedy it works well and had enough action to entertain a 90s audience that wanted Will Smith humor, X-Files aliens and early CG. Of coruse its success meant it got many more sequels many years after the fact so that kinda hurt the franchise, not to mention it really wasn’t a concept that should’ve been expanded, but with that said here we have the trilogy and the last spin-off or continuation or whatever the hell it was. Neuralizers be ready.
MIB
Loved this movie as a kid, watching it for the first time since then and well… The CG is rough but I guess it’s still 1997 and overall the movie is fun and in many ways innovative. The film sets up a fun world and it’s funny throughout keeping you engaged even if the story is rather simple. I like the world building that it does even if the actual threat wasn’t that intresting. It definitely had a blow your mind ending when it first came out, very Twilight Show of their part. Tons of memorable things that were reused over and over in not only pop culture but also rehashed in al the sequels. t sets up the world pretty well but the actual threat isn’t that interesting. neat ending you can see why it inspired .
MIIB 2
This came out in 2002, it took 5 years, by then I was now a teenager and the main selling point of the movie as indeed that Johnny Knoxville was in it in his little pathetic role. The CG is still rough and overall the film definitely feels like a relic of the early 2000s. Frank is so great, and easily the MVP of the franchise, definitely underused. Unsure why they decided to retcon the previous ending so hard but having Kay back along Jay is nice. Retcons aside it feels like an MTV Celebrity fest but I don’t mind seeing Michael Jackson just like he appeared in Space Channel 5. The Chemistry of Tommy Lee Jones with Will Smith almost make up for everything else. Repeating the same type of ending as before had diminishing returns.
MIB3
This time we needed to wait a decade for a sequel, and I’m not sure why they felt the need to make a new movie as its time had definitely passed.. The CG continues to be disappointing and just as before the plot is hardly interesting even if it does feel like it got more of a priority here. The younger K is better than I expected but still doesn’t have the same chemistry and that alone makes this a less interesting film. I do like the ending as it’s really touching and hits the feels. Still not having the chemistry of the two actors known for the franchise seems like a mistake, they even retconned the ending of the first one to get them back together. Also who thought it was a good idea to not use Frank.
MIB Intenational
A 7 year wait for this one so shorter than before but still…I guess this was a soft reboot or a spin-off or whatever. Not quite a full on reboot since it’s clearly set in the same universe. It’s a breath of fresh air to see new leads…well that’s what i thought going in. The’re not as fun and have little chemistry which makes the hwol emovie just not that funny. The plot is similar to the previous movies which doesn’t help since that was never the strong point. The movie just feels too long because of it as well. The CG continues to not impress for the era it came out in. The whole mole subplot at least had a predictable but decent closure. I just don’t see what the point of having the franchise continue with this.
I’m pretty sure no one is asking for a sequel to International or even a Men in Black 4 with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. But who knows, we’ve seen 10 years pass and then get a sequel before so I won’t count on victory just yet. I think the animated show might’ve worked better as a continuation, hell perhaps even the spin-off games and material might as well have been. MIB was a good idea for one film, expanding on it just never showed it was a one trick pony. Galaxy Defenders:
i thinkt he cartoon understood it better, it did reference havily the first movie but it benefitted from it at the very least, the sequels offered nothing. The first one is good for its time, the second one reeks of the 2000s and felt unecessary, third movie tried hard to be good and it failed and the fourth one tried to be different and failed. Why, why why? Happy to have seen them all nevertheless, ticked the nostalgia sectors of the brain but I don’t think I’ll ever watch the movies again.