Men In Black: International Blu-ray Review - Looks and Sounds Great!

By: Lynn Barker

The Men in Black movie franchise continues without Will Smith. In MIB:International,  the secret alien-policing organization has branched out to London where hot agent H (Chris Hemsworth) has gained a rep for kicking back a bit too much.

Hunky Agent H impressesCourtesy of Sony Pictures

After a childhood alien sighting that summoned the Men in Black, Molly (Tessa Thompson) is determined to join them and, after twenty years, tracks down the U.S. headquarters where head Agent O (Emma Thompson) makes her a probationary agent in the London office. Head of branch High T (Liam Neeson) assigns her to work with agent H to stop new alien attacks while sniffing out a mole in the organization.

Men In Black: International Trailer

Childhood Encounter

Young Molly finds a cute, furry alien in her room. Dad has also seen it and the Men in Black arrive, neuralyze (wipe that memory from) both parents but don’t know that Molly has befriended the alien and helps him escape.  He vows (in his language) to kill anyone she tells him to in future.

Agent O accepts Molly into MIBCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Grown-Up Molly

Molly, now an adult, asks the FBI and CIA if she can join the Men in Black but they seem to not know what she’s talking about. After hacking into NASA’s computer, she follows a probable spaceship to an odd spot in Brooklyn where she discovers a kind of cloaking device hiding the MIB cleanup operation. She follows the men to the New York headquarters, talks her way in but is discovered and sent to top agent O who, at first, wants to neuralize her but admires her tenacity and spunk so makes her a probationary agent M and trains her.

Agent M meets Agent HCourtesy of Sony Pictures

International MIB

Agent H blows his cover during an alien card game and ends up sleeping with the enemy, an alien girl with tentacles.  Agent M meets Agent H and both report to High T who is disappointed in H’s recent hijinks and impressed with M. In Marrakesh, two, twin, scary, electrically-powered aliens arrive, turn a guy to mush and duplicate his appearance. They go see the Queen of a tiny race called the Pawns who have helped them kill other aliens before. This time they refuse.

High T is fond of new agent MCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Assignment

H, who, along with T, wiped out dangerous aliens called The Hive in the past, learns that the dangerous arriving aliens want to kill Vungus, a member of another alien royal family. Since H knows him from the past, he is to be his guardian/chaperone while he’s on the town. M pretends to know all about Vungus’s race so H takes her along. At a club, the two evil aliens arrive, shoot a high tech dart at Vungus who gets sick. Later, Vungus is injured in a gun battle. M rushes to the alien but he is dying and gives her a strange, small pointed object telling her not to trust H. He has changed and there is a mole (undercover agent) inside Men in Black.

Gun battle outside the clubCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Marrakesh…Again

Agents H and M are sent back to Marrakesh where they find a tiny alien soldier who is the only survivor of the massacre of his people the Pawns by the new aliens. Needing a queen to obey, he swears to protect M and she names him Pawny. 

Pawney worships M as his new queenCourtesy of Sony Pictures

H and M are told that the device M is hiding was stolen by Vungus from his people. It is a very powerful weapon and the new aliens want it. After escaping the bad guy aliens on an alien hoverbike which crashes in the desert, H and M see the device turn into a gun-like weapon that runs on the power of a compressed star.. it’s nuclear and very dangerous. Another tiny alien we saw in town has stowed away and steals the device.

Is this thing nuclear? Courtesy of Sony Pictures

Meet Riza

It is reasoned that alien Riza (Rebecca Ferguson) a famous arms dealer (with three arms) whom H used to date, was given the weapon to sell to the highest bidder. H goes to her isolated island fortress seemingly alone but M hides in his boat. M almost gets the weapon back but Riza discovers her and grabs it again. M figures out that Riza’s bodyguard, a huge blue thug, is the grown-up version of the alien she saved so long ago.  Will he switch to her side when he recognizes her? Who will get the dangerous weapon and who is the traitor inside MIB?

M and H in MarrakeshCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Special Extra Features

• Gag Reel – the typical goof ups but both Tessa and Chris are silly fun as they blow lines and forget props, etc.
• Alien Shopping Network offers two cute items; Frank the Pug hosts Alien-Cestry.com as he checks his own family tree and asks if you think you are an alien. Neuralyzer: Like It Never Even Happened comes from flashandforget.com. You can make all your embarrassing moments disappear.  Cute!
• Deleted Scenes – a lot of them. Most are quite short. All are funny and/or informative. My fave? A longer scene in which Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) tells agent M (Tessa Thompson) how he was recruited to join MIB.  Very funny.

The agents after Vungus has diedCourtesy of Sony Pictures

• New Recruits, Classic Suits examines the cast of the movie from veterans like Emma Thompson as Agent O and Liam Neeson as High T to featuring other newcomers plus Chris and Tessa’s chemistry since they played Thor and Valkyrie together.  Nice.
• Let’s Do This! Inside the Action and Stunts – lead stuntman talks about the chases and stunts in the film. Chris does many of his and Tessa loved her fight with alien actress Rebecca Ferguson. Nice extra.

The hoverbike chaseCourtesy of Sony Pictures

• Look Right Here: Gadgets. Weapons and Rides covers all the cool MIB “toys”, guns, the neuralyzers and cars in the film as well as the hoverbike. Unique stuff!
• Expanding the Universe of MIB – Filmmakers discuss shooting in London, Marrakesh, Paris, Naples, the nightclub etc. Production Design, sets and alien character design, make-up and SPFX are highlighted. Really good!

Some of the cool new aliensCourtesy of Sony Pictures

• Several short, “selling” extras are included. They are Frank and Pawny’s Peanut Gallery in which the cute pug and alien show scenes from the film and talk about their involvement, Les Twins Leave It on the Floor, featuring the twin actor/dancers playing bad-guy aliens showing off their dance moves on and off set, and The MIB Meet the NBA is a strange but fun extra in which agents H and M visit various famous basketball players and suspect them of being aliens. Cute.
• In Case You’ve Been Neuralyzed: MIB Recap is a useful extra hosted by Frank the Pug which examines the stories and characters in all of the Men In Black films, catching us all up.

Wrapping Up

Overall, while entertaining, despite Hemsworth and Thompson’s chemistry and fun CGI aliens, the movie seems often slow and the plot wanders around with vague goals. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson continue their funny chemistry from Thor: Ragnarok but the dialogue here isn’t as clever. It’s great that a prominent female field agent is added to MIB and the new aliens created for the movie are really creative. It’s also nice to see Frank the Pug and the little stick guys from the older films.

H and M at the dance clubCourtesy of Sony Pictures

This Blu-ray/DVD/Digital set sounds and looks crisp and clean. There is no director or filmmaker audio commentary which might have explained some of the story choices. Extras are fun however; especially those featuring Chris and Tessa who are just entertaining folks to watch.  A few of the extras add to the enjoyment of the film; others are just promo material. They are good enough however to have us raise our three star rating of the film in theaters to four stars for this home entertainment version.

Men In Black: International Blu-ray Rating: 

Courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Buy Men in Black: International  Tuesday, September 3^rd.

Are You an MIB Fan?

Are you into the old MIB movies? Do you love the crazy aliens? Do you like Chris and Tessa as a team or prefer the old team of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones? Talk about all things MIB with a comment or a note on your Kidzworld profile page.