Welcome to the new segment I’m starting called Reb00t 1t, where I’ll be discussing the successes and failings of franchise reboots, largely on their own merits but I’ll make comparisons to the original if I feel they’re needed.
Men in Black: International comes under the reboot/sequel
category. Where this is technically a sequel but since none of the main cast
return in major roles and it’s been a few years since the last sequel came out so
I’ll classify it under reboot.
This film has issues in production from the start, Producer
Walter F Parkes and director F. Gary Gray clashes on the direction of the film.
Parkes oversaw extensive rewrites to the original script, with apparently it
being so confusing to stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson that they hired
their own dialogue writers.
It also seems he got involved with directing, annoying F.
Gary Gray so much that he actually tried to leave production on multiple
occasions. To be fair, Walter F Parkes was a producer of the original trilogy
so I understand why his experience was considered valuable by Sony.
Made on $94m budget, the film made $265m at the box office,
when you factor in a nearly $200m marketing campaign that went alongside this
film, that’s a substantial loss for the studio. And despite most people’s views
being ambivalent, it also holds the worst critical score on Rotten Tomatoes,
with only 23% of critics giving it a positive score.
