Men in Black

So I was doing alright going my entire life having not seen Men in Black. It's not like I had anything against this film, I was just okay having not seen it. But then again, that's not true because when it came on Netflix I kept on seeing it and it was reminder that this movie was a moderate successful film that a lot of people remember and I had never seen it. So I decided to finally watch it, don't worry everyone, my movie watching experience is one step closer to being complete.

Men in Black follows the story of James (played by Will Smith), a detective with the NYPD. He finds himself in pursuit of a criminal who he notices some strange things about him that are quite alien. From that experience he is recruited by a mysterious man in a black suit by the name of Agent K (played by Tommy Lee Jones), to join a mysterious organization known as MIB.

The two of them become an unlikely (therefore likely) buddy cop duo because K is a old Tommy Lee Jones like curmudgeon, and James, who eventually is renamed as Agent J, is a hip and happening Will Smith like character with all the one liners and Will Smith smack talk monologues you could ask for.

They start their partnership by investigating the movement and potential crimes committed by aliens who have secretly been living among us since the 60s.

There is a main plot line following the diabolic plan of an alien who body snatches the form of Vincent D'Onofrio and his scheming to start a war against another alien race right here on Earth but I'll be totally honest, D'Onofrio's character is really unremarkable as is the rest of this movie.

There is also a female character that I suppose seemed like a love interest for J at one point in the film but the truth is, she really didn't add much to the film at all. She's played by Linda Fiorentino but really, she could have been written out of the movie and not a whole lot would have changed.

The movie is by no means bad. I really like both Jones's and Smith's character and while they're pretty much just playing themselves, I had fun with them.

I'm also sure that in 1997, this movie looked really good with the combination of visual and computer generated effects. But over ten years later, it's really nothing special.

The truth is that while the story is unique and fun, there is nothing truly remarkable about the film to make me really remember it. I really don't think I'll feel like my movie going experience has changed much after watching this film and I guess I expected it to at least a little bit.

What I've gathered about the historical context of this movie was that this movie came out at a time where summer movies were not nearly as popular or as good as they are now and this movie seemed to be an exception to that rule. I think a lot of people have nostalgic memories of this film because it was so clever in a breath of fresh air in a year where the second most popular movie was Jurassic World, The Lost World. This was also the year of Batman and Robin so I get it, there's a reason this movie seemed like a breath of fresh air and I will give it the credit its due for bucking trends in a time where movies just weren't as great as they are now.

Overall, the same way I didn't feel as though I was really missing anything by having not watched Men in Black, I find myself in a very similar situation where I don't feel like I've really gained anything by watching it. I guess I can now say I've seen it and I have some credibility when I talk about it, but the film has not really aged very well and seems very much like a product of the 90s.

Sony owns the rights to Men in Black and they have talked about rebooting the franchise, because everything gets rebooted these days. There was a rumor for a little bit of time to have a crossover between Men in Black and 21 Jump Street and I can really only give a confused look and voice my still confused curiosity.

Does these two franchise fit at all? No. Is there any real good reason to have them crossover? No not really. But oddly enough, I'm curious to see what could happen, especially now that I've seen both movies. Now I have read that this crossover is probably not going to happen and it was more of an idea being thrown around at Sony that got leaked from the hack back in 2014. But honestly this sounds more interesting than just rebooting the franchise. I don't think it's really worth putting the money into to just recreate what was already mediocre.

But overall, I liked Men in Black, it just wasn't all that remarkable. What do you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. Apparently there was something else that came out of the Men in Black series besides two other films and that was the Men in Black animated television show. I personally have not watched it but here's the intro in case you were curious. Enjoy!