A better example of why and indeed how not to do a sequel did not appear in 2002. The original Men in Black was a riotously fun family film with perfect characterisations of staid veteran and enthusiastic rookie played out on screen by Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith, who have to work together to stop the Earth's destruction. This, however, is pants, and smacks of desperation in the 'bring it back quick, it made loads of cash' mould. They must have known the first MiB would blow the box office away, and could surely have worked a smoother passage between the two. What we get here however is a sad rehash of everything we've seen before; MiB headquarters, noisy cricket, super-car etc etc, with an annoyingly similar plot thrown in.
Alien comes to Earth looking for some source of ultimate power, and the MiB lads have to stop her. I could have sworn that was what happened in the first one. The lack of Tommy Lee Jones at the beginning is a serious loss, and he never quite fits back into his role after his reactivation from the Postal Service. In fact, the whole thing looks like they knocked it together a few weeks before it was due to be released, copying almost wholesale the formula of the first but bizarrely missing out the inventive fun and tight structure which made the first such a cut above the norm. This on the other hand, was crap. |
