One of Hollywood's worst sequels

Rating: 2/10 (21 December 2015)

I remember enjoying - to a degree - the first MEN IN BLACK when I saw it in cinemas back in 1997 when it came out. I never bothered with this sequel, having grown tired of Will Smith's brash persona, but when I saw it advertised on TV I thought I'd check it out. Better late than never, right? Well, no, as it happens. This is an awful sequel in every aspect made with zero intellect and a greedy eye on the purses of movie-goers. It stands as one of Hollywood's worst sequels EVER, jettisoning the first film's originality and fresh feel to offer a storyline that simply copies that of the original movie except with more CGI effects.
The first thing noticeable when you watch this film in 2015 is that the CGI effects are AWFUL. Worse even than you'd expect to see in a typical Asylum film. There's barely a single scene without some alien effect or other, and none of them are good, while a lot of them are excruciating. The action scenes that mix in wirework with CGI are the worst of the worst.
Otherwise, the film goes through the motions. Smith and Jones are on autopilot and none of their jokes are particularly funny. Lara Flynn Boyle's hammy villain is embarrassing, and the less said about fresh-faced Rosario Dawson, the better (hint: she was much better in SIN CITY). About the only things I liked in this film were the pug - although I'd have liked it better if it hadn't talked - and the Michael Jackson cameo. Everything else is just appalling.