Not awful, but still a pale sequel

Rating: Null/10 (4 July 2002)

***SLIGHT SPOILERS*** This was not the worst sequel that I've seen, but it still suffered from "sequel-itis" in all of the worst ways. It tried too hard to top the original with slam-bam special effects and moved at a frantic pace, never giving the audience time to know (or care about) the new characters, while making the obvious assumption that anybody who wanted to see this movie had already seen the original MIB. Therefore, there was no effort to make this film stand alone, a flaw that will make this version age poorly with time.
The acting was uniformly good, especially from the wonderful character actors, Rip Torn and Tony Shalhoub. However, it was disappointing to hear that K's (Tommy Lee Jones) wife had left him after he had waited decades for their reunion, which was the sweet ending to the first MIB. They could also have made more of J's (Will Smith) increasing frustration with the job and his attraction to Rita (Rosario Dawson), an appealing character whom we barely get to know, despite her literally-cosmic importance at the end. Also, compared to the first MIB's evil Edgar (Vincent D'Onofrio), the sequel's tentacle-shooting Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) was not much more than eye candy.
All in all, a rather pallid follow-up to a wonderfully entertaining original film. I know I won't make a second trip to the theatre to see this one--nor will I bother to buy the DVD when it comes out. Too bad.