One Line Review: Witty and humorous MiB is a much needed self parody of superhero movies

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YouTube Trailer Men in Black

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Release Date: 2nd July 1997

Introduction

The first mainstream movie from Marvel Comics, Men in Black, was released Today in 1997. I can’t believe that so much time has passed since then.

It exploded when it first made it to the theatres. It collected over $50 Million on the first weekend, which was more than half its production cost. Toys were being made, cartoons were airing on Saturday mornings, and boys were discussing the film in the hoods and localities like a major political affair.

Our review for Men In Black is 7/10.

Plot/StorylineTrivia

It was John Landis who was given a chance to direct the movie. But he turned down the offer. Later he admitted that he judged the script wrong, and he regretted the decision ever since.

Plot Summary

Two agents (Kay and James) of the non-government but highly funded agency, MiB, are sent on the same mission. Kay is provided an assistant James which works for NYPD, to shut the spacecraft full of aliens. That’s what Mib usually does. It puts a bar on the number of aliens trespassing the earth’s orbit and saves the world from hazards (and by the world, you know what they mean; America, aliens are so racist).

Kay and James are different personalities. On the one hand, Kay is very calm and collected. He barely smiles. Kay is neither easily impressed nor easily amused. On the other hand, James is very enthusiastic and chaotic. He is a young bloke who just shifted from NYPD to MiB and can’t contain his excitement. Their contrasting behaviors and different nature make the adventure much more fun and hilarious.

Let’s talk about the creative aspects of the movie

The script is very tight, filled with fun, lighthearted and clever. The writing was the first thing that gathered all the elements and cast them together, and we all ended with this masterpiece.

However, I want to mention this here. You should not expect any kind of psychological seriousness and depth from this movie.

The funny thing about this movie is that it is a parody of those superhero movies which are high budgeted and tend to master perfection based on that fact alone. This movie knows how lame and awful superhero movies look and makes fun of it with clever writing and commendable screenplay.

Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith

These two are the center point of the movie. Will Smith was good in ID4, but he is great in MIB. Smith was so emotionful and enthusiastic throughout the film. This was very contrasting from Tommy’s character, which was very serious, hard to crack, and fearless. Although, Tommy was very serious in this movie. The emotion of ‘I know what I’m doing’ was very well portrayed in every scene.

What did I get from this movie?

After watching it, I realized which changed my life and threatened the shit out of me; Aliens can be anywhere, and you won’t even know they are. You never know, they might be wandering on the Indo-Pak border with surprisingly human faces and very similar sound notes as of human(Like shown at the beginning of the movie, the aliens were hanging around on the Mexican border. I don’t whether I should laugh about it or be worried). We will also need some bizarre weapons to defeat them, although nobody knows how a sound-minded man will use them.

Conclusion

Of course, it would look lame now, but back when it got released, it made sense to all. It appealed to the audience, which got fed up by watching superhero movies and needed something to break the obvious. That’s exactly where MiB came from. It bashed the typical superhero theme and had people laugh out loud.