Back again to save the planet (Men In Black 2 - Superbit (DVD))

Member Name: mmintfresh

Product:	Men In Black 2 - Superbit (DVD)
Date:	04/08/02 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good film

Disadvantages: Underwritten villain roles

Five years after the original Men in Black and J (Will Smith)still hasn't found a decent partner and ends up neuralising almost everyone he works with. Now he has teamed up with Frank the dog and they are sent to investigate a murder of an alien by another alien. He finds out the murderer was Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle), an evil alien disguised as a lingerie model, after the light of zortha so she can destroy a planet. So with the help of two headed alien Scrad and Charlie (Johnny Knoxville) she tears around the city looking for it. There is also another problem, if the light doesn't leave earth the whole planet will explode. No one knows where the light is except for one person, K (Tommy Lee Jones). J goes to get his old partner who is working in a post office and with the help of Jeebs (Tony Shalhoub), the alien that they shoot the head off in the first one, they deneuralise him. Meanwhile Serleena has taken over MIB offices in search of the light.

When K is his normal self again J thinks it's only a matter of time before they get the light to the planet it came from but there is a snag. In order to keep the light from Serleena K hid it and then erased it's position from his mind and left clues in case he needs to find it. As the clock ticks on J and K have to find the light, fight aliens and protect the only witness, Laura(Rosario Dawson) who J has the hots for.

I loved the first Men in Black it was very funny and highly enjoyable. The sequel is these things but is no way as good as the first film and just doesn't have the spirit of the original. Firstly the basic storyline is a lot similar to the first one, an alien after something that could destroy another race of creatures, the first one had a galaxy, the second the light. There are a few new elements, MIB is taken over, the fact that K doesn't know he used to be an agent and the threat of earth's destruction. However the plot has lost J coming to terms with his
new job, which was an important part of the first film because he made mistakes and was over enthusiastic which added a lot of humour. But despite the shortcomings the story itself is watchable and does manage to stir a few laughs.

Most of the characters are back in this film. Firstly J and K who are at the center of the MIB universe. They have great chemistry together and I loved the role of K being the straight guy and J being the clownish one. The are still very entertaining. Z (Rip Torn) is also back but I liked his role better in the first one because of the way he treated J, calling him Tiger etc all the time, he has slightly lost that all powerfullness that he had in the first one. Frank the tough talking dog is also back and has a much bigger part in this film, probably the most featured character after J and K. This is a good thing because he works well, is funny and I liked the fact his part was expanded a lot. Laura is an okaish character but isn't in it much and we don't learn much about her. The worm guys are also back and like Frank have a bigger role and they are also funny so I was glad to see them. All the actors who play these characters were good especially Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

The main villian Serleena isn't in the film much and also doesn't do much, just look good in underwear. She doesn't have the charm of Edgar/the bug in the first one and he was much more menacing. However if we got to see more of her I think she would have been a lot better. Lara Flynn Boyle does all she really can with her. Another character who should have been expanded was Scrad, Serleena's hench man. He was quite funny with his two headed thing when we saw him but two thirds of the way through the film he just seems to disappear and all we hear about him is that he's really stupid but don't get a chance to really see it. An expansion of this role may have made the film funnier. Johnny Knoxville from Jackass was
good as him.

The direction of the film is good and the pace is kept evenly through the film. There are also some cool shoots but again the spirit of the first one was gone. The effects were also cool but have lost the wow power of the first one because when the first one was realised some of the effects were quite amazing but audiences have now seen it all before.

Despite the disadvantages I still really liked the film and it was a great film but not as good as the amazing Men in Black, still I would recommend it.

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