Avis Metacritic

It lacks ambition or depth, but it’s delicious and filling, proving (as if anyone still needed proof) that Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth are two of the most likable movie stars in the galaxy.

This is breezy stuff, a welcome respite in the hot summer months.

Men in Black: International isn’t bad; it’s an improvement over “Men in Black II” (2002) and “Men in Black 3” (2012), sequels that even its makers may have forgotten.

In and of itself, this revamp is mildly engaging but also feels like it's expending a great deal of energy for quite modest entertainment returns.

The connection between Tessa Thompson and Hemsworth is what saves the day, not anything their characters do onscreen.

International is better than Men in Black II and worse than Men in Black III, and they’re all bad, so erase this sentence from your memory.

MiB: International tries to invoke the original, but fails to match its key achievements: it isn’t funny or exciting.

It goes all-in on the foolproof chemistry, at the expense of everything else. We know from Thor: Ragnarok and the subsequent Avengers pow-wows how well Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson can spar, but their partnership only takes a film so far when the script’s in freefall and nothing else seems to have a stake.

Men in Black: International, which launches Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth into a bland variation on the same “MiB” routine, lacks the energy or ambition to make its intergalactic stakes into anything more than baffling cash grab. This misconceived attempt to inject a tired franchise with new life ends up as little more than an empty vessel.

It’s time to wave the neuralyzer in the face of every executive involved and murmur softly: forget about this franchise.