3 gibbles out of 5

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Continuing my trend of liking what are considered the worst in a series, Men in Black II was a much more comfortable outing, in my eyes, than the original installment. It certainly suffers from sequel-itis, of doing some bigger things that aren’t necessarily better, but it’s also more comfortable in its skin, and has gotten past most of the tired jokes of “THAT’S an alien?” because hey, we already know they exist now. The plot isn’t entirely unexpected or memorable – similar to MiB I, these are essentially popcorn flicks, just sit down and watch ’em, though there’s an undercurrent of intelligence and creativity (thanks to Sonnenfeld, who’s made a career of blending quirkiness with big budget) – but the script also gets credit for not being lazy and giving a fairly legitimate reason for wrapping Tommy Lee Jones back into the MiB world. As you’ll remember (or not) from film I, Jones retired. So only a world-threatening alien plot where the solution is stored in the now-erased Jones’ memory could possibly cause Will Smith to find Jones and bring him back into the fold. While this film poses the question moreso of “if you can’t show something effectively with CGI, why show it at all?”, it lacks the slapdash feel of I, where characters float in and out and the conclusion happens before you can blink, because we just want to show you all this fun stuff. Will Smith is way past needing to prove his abilities in the film world by the time of MiB 2, and computer-center flicks had become much more commonplace, so the film revels in that, not taking its time, exactly, but actually letting me feel like I’m watching a story and not just jokes, jabs, new gadgets, new monster, explosion, credits. Still empty over all, still eminently watchable, but smoother than film 1.