Lately the big blockbusters have been a bit hit and miss for me. I didn’t enjoy Shazam, Aladdin, X-Men Dark Phoenix or Godzilla: King of the Monsters but I did enjoy Avengers: Endgame and The Secret Life of Pets 2. The movie Gods taketh and giveth I suppose! Well, today I went and saw the latest blockbuster offering from Sony: Men in Black: International. I was skeptical because the previous 2 Men in Black installments were awful, but to my surprise this reboot was charming and a fun time at the movies.

The biggest thing Men in Black: International has going for it is the tremendous chemistry between stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson (thankfully they keep the ‘she’s a girl’ jokes to a minimum). We all knew this would be the case from their great work together in Thor Ragnarok and it continues here. Their roles are fairly standard (she’s the new girl, he’s the cocky veteran) but they elevate it with their witty banter and chemistry.

In fact, the whole cast brings great work to the film. I enjoyed Emma Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson and Kumail Nanjiani in their roles. Kumail’s character will probably be divisive but I thought he was cute and funny.

I also thought all of the alien design was creative and in keeping with the original Men in Black film. There are times the cgi isn’t the best but that was usually in action or on backgrounds (green screen can be seen) rather than characters so it is easy to ignore.

The action set pieces started to drag a little bit and the plot is extremely predictable, but I was enjoying the characters and the witty banter enough to shrug such problems off. It’s definitely a film I would like to see again and I hope it does well enough to get more films with this cast. Director F. Gary Gray did a wonderful job injecting some life into this franchise and it has loads of potential for the future.

I will be very curious to see how critics and audiences respond to Men in Black: International. Like I said, it is predictable and has some technical flaws, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and I think you will as well.

It is a pretty family friendly film except for a scene at a night club, a flirty minx of a woman played by Rebecca Ferguson and a few tense sequences. Certainly if your children can handle the original Men in Black they should be fine with this one. Let me know what you think if you get to see it.

7 out of 10