Men in Black: International and the remake of Hellboy supposed to be the highlight of 2019 for its long-time fans yet both films did not meet the expectation. Both films were backed with a well-established universe, well-known actors, engaging visual effects but forgot to prepare a strong storyline and convincing character’s motivation.
As a fan of both franchises, I wonder, what went wrong and what are the simplest tweaks to improve these movies?
This post contains spoilers and my personal opinion. Reader discretion is advised.
The Men In Black: International began with young Molly (Mandeiya Flory) finding an alien in her bedroom. While her parents’ memories were erased by the Men in Black, Molly was somehow spared and retained hers only to be labelled insane growing up by her peers for being obsessed with the great unknown.
Molly grew up, managed to sneak into the MIB headquarters only to be caught red-handed by Agent O (Emma Thomson). She was eventually given a chance to prove herself. This is where she started her adventure as Agent M (Tessa Thomson), working alongside the charismatic but sloppy Agent H (Chris Hemsworth).
Meanwhile, Hellboy was tweaking its universe quite a bit. It has always been a story about good versus evil, an endless internal battle of someone destined to open the gates of hell but choose to be good.
In this story, Hellboy (David Harbour) is on a mission to stop The Blood Queen Nimue (Milla Jovovich) from ending the world with help from his friends Alice Monaghan (Sasha Lane) and Major Ben Daimio (Daniel Dae Kim). Hellboy encountered many creatures, including the fascinating Baba Yaga.
So what went wrong?
In my opinion, both Men In Black: International and Hellboy are fun movies. I love Red’s new build and I also love another woman joining Men In Black.
For Men In Black, I had problems with the characters’ motivations. At the end of the story, we were explained how Agent H’s success in the past was a fabricated story — which may explain his rather careless attitude, lack of professionalism — but the movie did not explain well what was his relationship with Riza (Rebecca Ferguson), the dangerous arms dealer.
It was not even the most important plot of the movie but I was annoyed nevertheless. We got a glimpse that they had some sort of relationship in the past but it was what we were told and never shown in the film.
I must admit, however, while Hemsworth was a sweet sight, his lack of chemistry with other actors was annoying. He made Thompson’s brilliant yet subtle way showing her crush on her colleague pretty useless.
Meanwhile, Neil Marshall’s latest adaptation of the graphic novels by Mike Mignola did not betray the original story of good versus evil. Marshall, however, laid his priorities on showing violence and gore instead of telling the story and building characters. A very unfortunate choice for Indonesian viewers who have their film chopped for censorship purposes hence got nothing.
The pace was off, the characters seemed ingenuine, and this movie loved to spend time for unnecessary plots.
Easy fix
I felt as if both films tried so hard to set up for its sequel, prequel, and spinoff at the same time that it forgot to create a coherent and engaging story for its film.
Audience — me — wants to escape from the real world. We want to peek into the movie’s world. We desperately want to feel something from it. I love how Agent M showed hints that she fancies Agent H yet H seemed like a rock. I imagined a handsome Patrick Star as a MIB agent the whole time. It would be nice to actually feel something out of him.
Hellboy’s showrunner definitely made a poor choice by siding on gore instead of a story. The gore seemed unnecessary, but I love the part when Nimue waited for her bodyparts, watching telly before she could be sewn together again. I also love the Baba Yaga part. Awesomely creepy. Costume design was pretty good, but the t-shirt at the end? Nope. The ending felt rushed and somewhat forced.
I don’t mind if Hellboy sets a new universe where his dad (Ian McShane) looks like a Continental Hotel owner. I don’t even mind if Hellboy is the descendant of King Arthur but I do hope the story can be more focused on what it wants and eventually shows it to the audience.
