Review of Men in Black II (2002) by Kai82 — 19 May 2021

It is one of the good sequels for blockbuster movies. It is not as unique and refreshing as the first movie but has a great story, improves on the established lore and gets the fine mixture of seriousness and craziness of the franchise right.

This includes the humor which was a strength of both movie. Like I already said for the prequel: It helps a lot that the movie takes itself not that serious and uses a lot of opportunities to make fun of (alien) conspiracy theories.

It has of cause slapstick, situational humor, quirky characters and gadgets that would be excellent in superhero comic books. Some might even be to crazy or unbelievable for comic book science ;-). Just as set up: The Men in Black are based on a real life UFO conspiracy theory (I hesitate to use the word real life in connection with conspiracy theories).

These are men in black suits looking like or claiming to be government agents who are speaking with people who have seen UFOs or other related strange things. They want that the people remain quite about the incidents and often they are threatening or bullying those people.

The movie uses this idea to full potential as the Men in Black are a super secret agency that are policing aliens on earth and protecting mankind while keeping everything secret from public and government knowledge (No human except themselves on earth knows that they exist including even former members).

It is set a few years after the conclusion of the first movie. Agent J (Will Smith) has worked his way up to being the top MIB agent but has never found a partner there while former agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) works in retirement at a post office (Of cause without any memories of his true past).

This changes when the dangerous alien Serleena comes to earth to uncover a secret from the past and agent K is the key to this. This is the set up for the movie. I say it takes a while too long for me to get the duo back in action but then it fully delivers.

I will say that the story is partly better than the first movie but also weaker in other parts. Clarification: Starts slower, is less refreshing but in the second half surpass the first movie (Overall I would say the sequel losses slightly).

However the lore, worldbuilding and humor works excellent. They put a lot of effort into creating the feeling of the movie and mixture of hilarious humor and seriousness. If you make a movie enjoyable, interesting and immersive you can get away with a lot of stuff.

Be warned that this can be a make or break point for others. The actors did a great job in the movie. A lot is around the dynamic and good chemistry between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. These 2 are carrying the movie and make this a good experience.

With Lara Flynn Boyle as Seerlena we got a new intimidating antagonist. She is truly enjoyable but also the hit or miss kind as others see her as failure (I disagree). Johnny Knoxville as a double role as henchman with a unique ability.

Rosario Dawson is good in this. (To much spoilers if I go into details). There are of cause some returning characters and cameos. Good cast and for the genre also quite competent. Visually the special effects are again great and they get the look or better said aesthetics of the right.

It aged good and fits the narrative. Soundtrack is O.K. for me but not awesome enough to be in a top 10 list. Overall this was an enjoyable sequel. Not as good as the original but definitely worth watching.