Tips: This article has spoilers!
Agent M (Tessa Thompson) asks Agent O (Emma Thompson), "We have female agents like you in M.I.B., why do we have to be called 'Men in Black' for both men and women, and why can't we female agents be called 'Women in Black'." ”
Agent O reluctantly said that she had been protesting this for decades and was still useless.
It's not until the end of the film that Agent H (Chris Hemsworth) proudly says that we are The Men & Women in Black.
Screenshot of the trailer for Men in Black: Global Pursuit. This trailer can be said to explain all the interesting points of the film - alien vehicles, alien weapons, alien pets, as well as Agent M (left) and Agent H
In fact, in the film "Men in Black: Global Pursuit", these seemingly very feminist dialogues are buried with a three-pronged meme, the acronym "W.I.B" of "Women in Black", which in British and American slang in addition to referring to marijuana, has some heavier flavor meanings. This may be the tone that the Men in Black series of movies and anime has maintained for decades – postmodern structure and nonsense.
Speaking of nonsense, this film forcibly let the London station use Chinese Mandarin to announce the station name, so that Huang Bo's face is projected on the big screen, almost making me think that the "Men in Black" series is going to be linked with "Crazy Alien", fortunately, in this embarrassing section of "surrendering to the capital father", it is "appropriate to stop", plus the film's original omnipresent nonsense, but it is not too abrupt.
Undoubtedly, the process of watching "Men in Black: Global Pursuit" is quite joyful, as the fourth "Men in Black" series of movies, while shouldering the mission of restarting the "Men in Black IP", this film is not bad in terms of completion. However, after the advanced screening organized by the "Inception Movie Group" on June 11, the comments of some Douban netizens can also be seen that they are not all bought for the new film's main CP and cute pet cards.
Short comments from some fans on Douban
It is worth exploring, what is the core value of the IP of "Men in Black"?
During the Aircel period, the cover of the Men in Black comics
In 1990, the Men in Black comic was serialized in Aircel for three issues, followed by Malibu's acquisition of Aircel in 1991 and its reissuance of three issues. In 1994, Marvel acquired Malibu, and Men in Black was "snow hidden" from a comic point of view. It was not until 1997, when the movie "Men in Black", based on the comic book of the same name, was a big hit, and Marvel took advantage of the trend to launch three one-book comics. However, "Men in Black 2" released in 2002 is the culmination of the IP's momentum and the turning point of the IP.
Stills from Men in Black 2, Agent K (left) and Agent J
Not counting the fourth "Men in Black" for the time being, "Men in Black 2" is the worst word-of-mouth and rating of the first three films, quoting the chicago sun-times film review that year, you can understand from one side, what is the core of the "Men in Black" series, the newspaper is written like this: Part of the reason for the great success of the last "Men in Black" is because it is interesting, partly because it exceeds expectations. We've never seen it before, and in Men in Black 2, we see exactly the same thing.
Stills from Men in Black
Yes, the success of 1997's Men in Black was that audiences at the time thought they would see a science fiction film, but when they entered the theater, they were pleasantly surprised to find that they saw a grotesque film that completely ignored scientific rigor and broke many of the rules and regulations of Hollywood science fiction.
And 2002's "Men in Black 2" may be too concerned about some negative comments such as "empty, nothing, boring" when the previous work was released, trying to add so-called "brain holes" in addition to the absurd, which is counterproductive.
From this point of view, the "Men in Black 3" released in 2012 is still stepping on the pace of "Men in Black 2", and the "Men in Black 4" released in 2019, in the author's opinion, finally returned to the first "Men in Black" in 1997.
In 1997's Men in Black, Agent J (Will Smith) mistakenly hits the Man in Black and gradually develops a close peer friendship with veteran Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones).
Director F. Gary Gray (center) with Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson on the set of Men in Black 4
Similarly, in "Men in Black: Global Pursuit", the stunned Agent M has gradually become a good partner with the legendary agent H in the industry. Similar narratives, even the affair of Agent K and Agent H is almost a reproduction.
In a way, if it weren't for the hard work of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson, the new film would almost certainly have collapsed. Hemsworth presents a similar state of madness to "Murder at the Royal Hotel" (2018) for most of the film, but at the end of the film, a "mystery is revealed", this almost Zhou Botong-style performance has a very rational explanation.
Stills from Men in Black 4
In the early comics, the purpose of the Men in Black organization is to control the earth, in order not to let ordinary people know about the existence of aliens, they are directly through the killing of witnesses to solve the problem (of course, will also use the memory elimination stick), so this "black" can be said to be "dark", but the biggest change in the 1997 movie "Men in Black" is that the purpose of the Men in Black organization has changed, they are just a secret organization that maintains the order of the earth and the galaxy, and their treatment of witnesses has become "humane". Solve the problem through the memory elimination stick (of course, also to kill the witness), so this "black" becomes "black humor".
Stills from Men in Black 4, Alien Creeps
The 1997 movie "Men in Black" finally shaped the foundation of this IP, and also created several stems belonging to this IP - strange aliens, endless weapons, infernal passages within men in black, and the key role of memory elimination sticks. At this point, both Men in Black 2 and Men in Black 3 deviate partially from Men in Black, while Men in Black 4 reinforces this type of meme when it restarts.