Director Report Card: Barry Sonnenfeld (2002)

8. Men in Black II

The one-two punch of “Wild Wild West's” disastrous reception and “Big Trouble” getting buried for unforeseeable reasons probably should've destroyed Barry Sonnenfeld's directional prospects. In retrospect, it's clear that his career never entirely recovered. Yet Sonnenfeld had one ace left up his sleeve: A sequel to “Men in Black,” his biggest hit and one of the most iconic blockbusters of the nineties. After all, Will Smith had become one of the biggest movie stars in the world since 1997. That factoid is probably why it took five years to get “Men in Black II” made, on account of its leading man being so much in demand. (Tommy Lee Jones was pretty busy too, I suppose.) “Men in Black II” finally came out in 2002/

Five long years have passed since the end of “Men in Black.” Agent J has gone from a rookie to one of the organization's most respected agents. He's also gone through several partners, having trouble finding a personality that compliments him. After letting his latest partner go, an insidious alien threat named Serleena arrives on Earth. Serleena is in search of the Light, a massive source of power, that she chased to Earth twenty years earlier. Agent K supposedly sent the Light to another world but he secretly kept it here. Agent J has to find his former partner and De-Neuralyzer him, to find the Light and keep it out of Serleena's tentacles. At the same time, Jay starts to develop feelings for Laura, the sole witness to Serleena's arrival. 

As I said previously, “Men in Black” was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It's one of the first movies I can recall were I eagerly anticipated a sequel. The first film obviously ended by setting up more adventures. I can actually recall writing and drawing little comic books showing the further adventures of Agent J and Agent L. There's a small “Men in Black” extended universe that fed my interest in a continuing story as a kid, including an above-average cartoon adaptation, some more comics, and even a theme park ride. Yet a new movie is what I really wanted. When “MIB II” finally arrived, it was not what my young mind was hoping for. First off, Elle was nowhere to be seen. (Supposedly because Tommy Lee Jones hated working with Linda Fiorentino.) Secondly, I found the story and humor underwhelming. My memory of “Men in Black II” is largely negative, to the point where I wasn't sure how I'd feel about revisiting it.

As a younger man, my biggest complaint with “Men in Black II” is that it felt like a lazy rehash of the original. Instead of further exploring the world and cast set up at the end of the first film, the sequel lazily flips the dynamics of the original. Agent Jay is now the grizzled veteran while Agent Kay, with his wiped memory, is the rookie. The plot is extremely similar, as both movies are about an alien villain seeking a small but incredible potent power source. Both movies even end on the exact same gag, with the reveal that our world is just a small part of a massive universe. Moreover, the film indulges in one of my biggest pet peeves about sequels: It undoes the character development the first film completed. By bringing Agent Kay back into MIB, it completely undoes the natural conclusion to his story we saw last time. It makes you feel like you've been cheated. That the writers and filmmakers were too lazy to think of anything better.

Yet even this is not the biggest problem with “Men in Black II.” “Men in Black” was a funny movie but its humor largely evolved out of the interactions between the characters. The sequel, meanwhile, goes out of its way to get laughs. We have big, goofy gags like Zed backflipping through the air or Kay having a secret arsenal of weapons hidden in a random family's home. The sequel's overbearing approach to comedy is apparent in several aspects. The first of which is the decision to turn brief, one-off gags in the first movie –  Frank the Pug and the Worm Guys – into major supporting characters. Frank puts on a little suit and sings along to pop songs, which feels like something out of a kid's movie. The Worms, meanwhile, get a worm-sized bachelor pad and join the heroes on the climatic adventure. It really bugs me that the Worms speak English, when the original joke was that Kay and Zed understood them even though they spoke an alien language.

Yet I sort of get it. The cartoon show developed Frank, the Worms, and Jeebs – whose exploding head also returns here – into full-blown supporting characters. The first movie gave us peeks at a bigger world, so it's naturally we'd want to see more of it. That the sequel brought these elements back isn't the problem. It's that the sequel prioritizes laughs over anything else. Almost all of the film's characters are farcical. Serleena gets an annoying comic relief sidekick. Whether it be Frank, the Worm Guys, or somebody else, everyone in this movie is making jokes all the time. It keeps any serious tension from ever developing. “Men in Black” was funny but you still felt the fate of the world was at stake. How can we be concerned about the apocalypse when there's shit like an alien with balls dangling off his chin in the movie?  How can we care about what's happening when there's a locker full of miniature alien porn addicts or a Michael Jackson cameo? (Who apparently missed that the same director made a joke at his expense in "Addams Family Values.") 

The sequel's wild shift in tone is not just evident in its overbearing jokes. The practical creature effects in the original “Men in Black” were incredible. Rick Baker – who gets a cameo – and his studio returns to create more extraterrestrials. Yet the aliens are far goofier looking than before. Not just the Ballchinian or the guy who looks like dog shit. We see exaggerated looking bird-people, who look more like cartoon characters than alien lifeforms. The visitors we meet in Kay's post-office have big expressive eyes and goofy faces. Baker's effects are still incredible but the sillier designs point towards the overall lack of tension. (The scaly faced “Hideous Sun Demon” lookalike is the only design that really sticks out to me.) The sequel also relies more on CGI than its predecessor. Like Serleena's tentacles or Geoff, the giant subterranean worm. Both of which look pretty mediocre, then and now. 

As much as I dislike “Men in Black II” bringing Kay out of retirement, I get it. The original succeeded because of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones' chemistry. Would audiences have even shown up for a sequel without both of them? The script tries to finagle a proper character arc out of this return. We learn that Kay was in love with the keeper of the Light but he had to give her up. Jay, similarly, has to give up the woman he loves for the fate of the world. Exploring the idea that a Man in Black, by the job's nature, has to completely unplug from all relationships is an interesting one. After all, we didn't learn anything about Jay's personal life in the first movie. That their partnership is the closest thing to a real relationship either can get. Yet it still feels like an unnatural, desperate attempt to turn nothing into something... And I'm still annoyed by the reveal that Kay's wife left him off-screen. That feels like the happy ending of the first movie invalidated.

Further evidence that “Men in Black II” doesn't take itself nearly as seriously as the original is its villain. Edgar the Bug was occasionally a source of dark humor in the first movie. Ultimately, he was a threatening, frightening presence. The sequel doubles-down on sex appeal, instead of fear factor. Serleena is a mass of squirming alien vines, which isn't the worst idea for a villain. She takes the form of a lingerie model and, unlike the decomposing Edgar, stays glamorous throughout most of the movie. Lara Flynn Boyle – a last minute replacement for Famke Janssen – gives an unengaged, bored performance as the villainess. The sequel is seemingly aware of how lame its main threat is, as it includes a number of sub-bosses. Like an incredibly annoying Johnny Knoxville, made all the more annoying because of his shitty CGI second head. Or a murderous robot that looks like a trash can and another goofy-looking creature named Jarra. 

Even this far into his career, you can still see Barry Sonnenfeld indulging in some of his favorite visual quirks. Like those fast-paced tracking shots. This is most obvious in the various action sequences. Such as when Jay is riding on the back of the aforementioned giant worm. Or even more-so when a supporting villain zips around a room, in a series of small flying saucers. Watching these tiny UFOs fly through the air reminded me of the magnetic buzz saw scene in “Wild Wild West,” and I mean that as a compliment actually. I wish there was more of that stuff, honestly, as “Men in Black II” doesn't feel as visually distinctive as the original or Sonnenfeld's other films.

Mostly, “Men in Black II” just kind of washes over me in a mediocre wave, few of its elements sticking in my memory in any way. The few times the sequel gets me to laugh is owed almost entirely to its leading men's chemistry. Will Smith still has a way with a baffled one-liner. The way he mumbles through a sarcastic memory about being “flushed” to Kay, or his words to Laura when introducing her to the Worm Guys, actually get me to laugh. This may just be because Smith is a genuinely funny guy. Similarly, Tommy Lee Jones' withering glare and deadpan reactions still manage to amuse. When he meets Frank the Pug again or learns that Jeeb's head is going to grow back, that made me chuckle. It's not the belly laughs of the original but these moments stick out in a largely laughless sequel.

The only new addition to the “Men in Black” universe that I actually liked was Rosario Dawson as Laura. It's not that Laura is an especially deep character. Agent Jay falls in love with her over the course of one scene, when she says a single line of dialogue that touches him. The sequel tries to build a whole emotional arc around this, which doesn't really work. But it almost works, exactly because Dawson is so effortlessly charming. She's so good that she even has strong chemistry with the rubber, latex, and CGI that makes up the Worm Guys. And for what it's worth, Patrick Warburton is also mildly amusing as Jay's short-lived new partner in the first scene. 

There was obviously demand for “Men in Black II,” if only because there was people out there like me who loved the first one. Yet you get the sense that nobody really wanted to make this sequel. The script is largely lazy and uninspired and the tone is all wrong. I suppose the leading men are still relatively engaged but they definitely don't have the freshness we saw in the first one. Even Will Smith's stupid theme song feels utterly phoned-in and tossed-off. “Nod ya head” is really the best hook you could come up with, Fresh Prince? The sequel was still a sizable hit but it noticeably grossed about a 100 million dollars less than the original, suggesting audiences weren't especially enthused either. “Men in Black II” sucks a little less than I remember but possibly because I was so disappointed in it initially. It's watchable, I suppose, but still represents an incredibly wasted amount of potential. [Grade: C-]