Men in Black again?

Rating: Null/10 (9 December 2002)

Not quite. What's the problem with this film? Well, let's go back to the first MiB film; we had a very original angle for a sci-fi comedy, nobody sitting down in the theatre for MiB had any idea what they were in for. Yeah, a movie about a secret organization who goes after aliens--given. The fact that every breath the film takes is to make a wisecrack at some political figure, celebrity or sci-fi concept, that came as a pleasant surprise. MiB exceeded many people's expectations because no person, place, or thing was safe from MiB's smart ass commentary.
Now we have MiB 2. Now we have expectation carrying over from the first film--we go from scene to scene, character to character imagining all the funny stuff they can throw at us for a post office, a two headed alien, a talking dog, etc . . . and we get *a* joke with each, then the film moves on. The humor the commentary on sci-fi and 'important people' is tame in comparison to the first. A lot of the scenes are funnier in the trailer because the trailer happens to catch the punch line and spares us the other 15 minutes where we expect to be overwhelmed with the satire. Not here.

So what happened? Did the writers run out of things to make fun of with the whole MiB concept? Is there, in fact, just as much satire as the first but our expectations are higher this time around? Who knows--I'm not about to watch both back to back to find out. Either way, going into a sequel you have to recreate what made the first successful (which the filmmakers semi-accomplished) and expand it into new territory to keep it from being just a retread (which the makers did not do.)
MiB 2 cannot escape the shadow of its predecessor, and it doesn't even try. It sits comfortably in the same premise, characters, jokes as the first one and as a result loses its effectiveness . . . because the first one had an edge--it had an original angle. No one quite knew what MiB's target in satire was, and it was in fact, everything.
Jones and Smith reprise their roles very effectively; it would have been nice to see Agent L return, alas, did not happen. The writing doesn't seem up to par with the first nor does the direction. Elfman returns with an effective score. Overall, the film is pretty good so long as you don't start expecting too much or hold it up against its predecessor. Go figure.