Men in Black: International Review: We did not need the post-Thor team

At the beginning of Men in black: International, two agents Riff on how the extraterrestrial surveillance organization is still called Men in Black, even if there are, you know, women. Later, another character calls them "men and women in black". These are dubious and meritorious moments, not because gender parity is not important (it is), but because the gag is old and, frankly, binary.

The over is the North Star by which Men in black: International, directed by F. Gary Gray (The fate of the furious), works. Even more extraterrestrials, more jokes, more guns, more locations and more special effects as Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth try to save the world.

The glow (or the explosion, really) of the relative simplicity of the original of 1997 makes sense not only because "more" is a mandate of all the blockbusters these days, but also because 39 is the impulse that no matter who, like Molly (Thompson), would have. Men in black: International Of course, it's a sci-fi comedy, but it's also a movie that meets the wishes of everyone who has seen the original movie. Men in black in adolescence and wanted to be able to join the secret agency as well.

As a child, Molly finds a stranger in her room and sees her parents erase their memories by Men in Black agents. After escaping all memory, Molly spends the next 20 years searching for the truth about aliens, men in black, and the world at large. When she finds it, her resulting MIB transformation is the subject of dreams. The bespoke suit, cool gadgets, access to extraterrestrial information and other worlds; it's the science fiction version of Harry Potter being greeted at Hogwarts.

Unlike Harry Potter, this feeling of wonder is not generated by an original story, but by nostalgia for a better movie. It's both a curse and a blessing that as soon as Danny Elfman has Men in black The theme music begins, the sequel / spin-off earns a lot of goodwill – it does not have to work as hard to achieve its goals. But the TK Goosey Tose movie takes its toll as soon as possible.

The rookie and the famous veteran respectively Thompson and Hemsworth are not lacking in charm or charisma (see: Thor: Ragnarok), but they have little precious things to work. Namely: A key aspect of Hemsworth's agent, H, is that he has changed since the world was saved a few years ago. But we do not know what he used to look like, and none of the characters – who keep telling him that he's different now – has deigned to clarify this point either.

The best thing to say for International will it be a perfect airplane movie? Whatever the black magic at work that made 2012 Men in black 3 so big (Will Smith's supernova charm, a truly emotionally emotional story, more practical effects) has almost disappeared from the soft restart. The film constantly throws objects at you, but none really sticks.

Similarly, Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley), who plays the sympathetic friendly alien, and Rebecca Ferguson (Mission: Impossible – Fallout), as a well-armed arms dealer, has little impact, as he is really prepared. Rafe Spall, who plays the bureaucratic C agent, comes out a little better, as wacky as a zany franchise about secret and extraterrestrial organizations. (Vincent D'Onofrio played a pushpin while wearing a man! Go!)

The action of the film – though relatively relentless, with each scene of a new computer-generated extraterrestrial or the possibility for Hemsworth to get muscular – is just as pedestrian. The villains, extraterrestrials embodied by the French dancers Laurent and Larry Bourgeois, allow some nice effects, but they get lost in the CGI soup that characterizes the final battles of so many films of recent superheroes.

If there is something that Men in black: International proves that the franchise has potential, but that the film fails to capture this copper ring. It's funny – I do not want to seem needless in a film that is the epitome of popcorn-muncher – it's just to be in one ear and the other, the cinematic equivalent of being neuralized. A little time will have passed and you will feel like a pleasant stunner; you will not remember anything that happened before.