4 / 10
Men in Black: International is the franchise reboot that replaced Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. F. Gary Gray directed. Art Marcum and Matt Holloway wrote. Tessa Thompson plays Agent M, a young woman who has spent decades searching for the MIB after encountering them as a child. Chris Hemsworth plays Agent H, a senior London MIB operative whose past success against an alien invasion has not aged well. Liam Neeson plays High T, the London branch head. Rebecca Ferguson plays Riza Stavros, an arms dealer. Kumail Nanjiani voices Pawny, a chess-piece-sized alien sidekick. The plot involves a stolen alien weapon, a mole inside MIB, and the eventual reveal that High T is the antagonist.
The film made approximately two hundred and fifty-three million dollars worldwide on a one hundred and ten million dollar budget. The commercial performance was disappointing for Sony Pictures. The reviews were largely negative. The studio considered the franchise dormant after release. Subsequent MIB content has been limited. The film is one of the clearer examples of a franchise reboot that prioritized demographic recasting over the property’s actual creative DNA.
What Made It a Woke Disaster
The film’s central commitment is replacing the Smith-Jones pairing with a woman and an attractive male partner. The replacement is the production’s main creative choice. The script does not develop a new reason for an MIB film to exist. The film exists because Sony wanted a diverse MIB cast and built a film around the wanting. Agent M’s introduction sequence positions her as the underestimated woman who has been smarter than the men around her since childhood. Her first scene at MIB headquarters has her recruited specifically because she does not fit the agency’s traditional profile. The framing is that the agency needed the diverse hire to function properly.
The High T reveal is the film’s clearest ideological statement. Neeson’s character is positioned as Agent H’s mentor and the moral center of the London branch. The third-act reveal is that High T has been corrupted by the alien Hive and is the actual antagonist. The structural argument is that the older, white, male, traditional authority figure cannot be trusted. The film’s diverse young team has to overcome the institutional patriarch to save the world. The reveal is staged as moral discovery. Agent M’s outsider perspective is what makes her able to see what the establishment cannot. The film argues that traditional MIB authority is the problem the new MIB has to fix.
Agent H, played by Hemsworth, is the film’s secondary ideological structure. H is set up as the legacy hero who needs to learn his glory days were overblown. The film systematically dismantles his confidence. The audience learns that the alien invasion he prevented was actually prevented by High T (now revealed as the antagonist) and that H has been coasting on credit he did not earn. The structural argument is that the male hero of the property’s earlier era was a fraud all along. The new female lead has to teach him that his self-image is wrong.
For Writers
When a film exists to replace its predecessor’s protagonists with demographically different versions, the film inherits the burden of being interesting on its own terms. MIB International cast Hemsworth and Thompson, framed both characters in opposition to the previous male leads’ implicit politics, and did not give the new film its own reason for being. The lesson is that replacement narratives need to do more than replace. They need to make a case for the new characters as people worth following. Casting cannot do the work alone.
The London Waste
The decision to relocate the franchise to London is structurally interesting and undeveloped. The 1997 MIB was specifically about New York’s particular relationship with strange visitors. The London branch concept could have produced a film about how a different city handles the same situations. British MIB could have had different procedures, different cultural assumptions, different relationships with the alien populations living there.
The film does not develop the London identity. The setting is mostly decorative. The London office looks like the New York office. The British operatives behave like the American operatives. The cultural specificity that the relocation should have produced does not appear. The film could have been set anywhere. The choice to set it in London produces no specific narrative material. The decoration is wasted.
For Writers
A setting change in a franchise should produce content specific to the new setting. International moved MIB to London without using London. The setting is decoration rather than substance. The lesson is that location matters in fiction. If your story moves to a new place, the new place should affect the story. Different cities have different cultures, vocabularies, and dynamics. Use them.
The Pawny Problem
Kumail Nanjiani’s Pawny is the film’s attempt at a memorable sidekick character. Pawny is a chess-piece-sized alien who attaches himself to Agent M as her loyal servant. The character is intended to fill the role Frank the Pug filled in the original. Nanjiani is a skilled comedic performer. The Pawny character does not work because the script gives him generic loyal-sidekick material rather than specific characterization.
The original Frank the Pug worked because he was a specific character. A talking pug who was actually an alien but had become genuinely a New York pug in his behavior. The contrast between the dog’s appearance and his alien identity produced specific comedy. Pawny is just a small alien with a sword. The audience does not learn what kind of person Pawny is. He is a function rather than a character.
For Writers
A comedic sidekick needs specific characterization beyond their structural function. International’s Pawny is a sidekick without a personality. The character delivers lines but does not have a specific voice. The lesson is that supporting characters need their own interiors even when their narrative purpose is small. Give the character specific quirks, opinions, and inconsistencies. A character is a person rather than a job description.
Craft Note
The Marrakech market chase is the film’s strongest individual action passage. Agent H and Agent M pursue alien arms-deal participants through a North African souk while attempting to maintain civilian-population cover. The sequence stages comedy and action together with specific spatial coherence. The Marrakech passage demonstrates that F. Gary Gray (Friday 1995, The Italian Job 2003, Straight Outta Compton 2015) had craft to spare for action geography. The sequence is what an MIB International film built around specific international settings could have delivered consistently. The rest of the film does not match the Marrakech passage’s confidence.
The Verdict
4/10. A franchise reboot whose demographic recasting did not generate the brand revival the production hoped for. The Marrakech chase is the film’s clearest craft success. The High T reveal and the Agent H dismantling are the film’s ideological commitments. Watch the 1997 original instead.
FAQ
Is Tessa Thompson good?
Yes. Thompson’s performance is committed. The script does not always give her the strongest material.
How is Chris Hemsworth?
Competent. The role does not use the himbo comedy strength his Thor: Ragnarok performance demonstrated. The casting was correct. The role was not optimized for what he does best.
Will there be another MIB film?
Sony has not announced future MIB projects since International. The franchise is currently dormant.
How does it compare to the 1997 original?
Significantly weaker. The 1997 MIB is one of the better science fiction comedies of its decade.
What about MIB 3?
Men in Black 3 (2012) was the strongest of the sequels. The franchise probably should have continued the Smith and Jones continuity rather than rebooting with new leads.
Who is F. Gary Gray?
American director. His earlier films were generally more successful than MIB International.
Should I watch this?
For the Marrakech sequence, yes. As a complete film, lower priority than the 1997 original.