Didn't think much of the first or the second...

Rating: 6/10 (3 August 2002)

One thing you have to consider when seeing a "Men in Black" movie is that it will just be a "Ghostbusters" with aliens. Nothing more and nothing less. However, "Men in Black 2" is much more improved compared to director Barry Sonnenfeld's previous big-budget special effects effort "Wild Wild West," which also starred Will Smith.
I can't say that I'm a fan of the first "Men in Black" movie, the same goes for the second installment. What the audience sees in the second movie is basically the exact same thing seen in the first. Thus, this sequel is even less impressive. If you've been watching the trailers on television, what you see is what you get.
In "MIB2," Jay (Will Smith) is trying to get Kevin Brown,(Otherwise known as Kay, played by Tommy Lee Jones)--who now works at the post office--to join the Men in Black once again to stop the evil alien Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle)--whose shape shifts from a small plant-like alien to a Victoria's Secret model from a magazine--who needs something known as "The Light" before the she destroys the earth. How original.
People who thought that the second film would continue where the first film left off, you'll be disappointed. There is no evidence whatsoever that those events ever happened. What we get instead is a remake of the first movie. Therefore you get the sense that you've been there, done that. Unless there is a prequel set sometime in the middle of these two movies, maybe there is still hope for the franchise.
Will Smith returns with his funny one-liners, while Tommy Lee Jones prefers to give us his dry humor. Fortunately, since "MIB2" takes place in the present, it's not as awkward to have the modern slang come from Will Smith's pie hole, as it was in "Wild Wild West." I suppose I should be thankful for that. But what about the rest of the movie?
People claim that a sequel is supposed to bigger, better, and more elaborate than their predecessors, but it seems that almost all sequels only succeed in the technical aspects, such as the special effects. "MIB2" contains lots of special effects. Some of them are spectacular, while others leave a lot to be desired. For example, there's a worm that lives in the New York Subway tunnel being ridden by Will Smith's character. While this worm is trying to devour a subway, Jay is trying to calm the creature down. Unfortunately, the sequence is too revealing. Sure, it's a creative idea, but revealing effects make the movie less desirable.
Some directors don't understand that special effects are tools used to tell a story, not to impress us. I admit that I do enjoy seeing eye candy, it shows how creative some people could be. But there's a time to show it and a time not to show it. Personally, I'd rather see a movie with mediocre effects but a decent story, rather than one taking so much advantage of state-of-the-art technology that they forgot to tell the story. If you do the latter then you end up with things like "The Matrix."
Overall, "MIB2" is a big improvement over Sonnenfeld's last sci-fi action comedy, but is that enough? If we ever do see a "Men in Black 3," I'd really like for it to either be a prequel (though that would probably mean no Kay), or for it to start where the previous film left off. There's nothing I hate more than a sequel that opens to a story that has nothing to do with the first movie, which was wide open for a sequel.