Galaxy Defenders
July 4, 1997
They are the protectors of the universe. They work for a shadowy organization that appears to have government ties, and they keep the world safe from hostile Aliens. Based on the comic book of the same name, Will Smith is an NYPD cop, James Edwards, who discovers a strange and different world where almost everyone on Earth is an alien. Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) has been a member of the organization for a long time and decides to show Agent J (Will Smith) the hidden secrets of the universe in the thrill-a-min, bombastic sci-fi action comedy “Men In Black.”
Tommy Lee Jones is the seasoned agent and the serious one who doesn’t take well to K’s wisecracking and jokes. The veteran Agent of Division 6 never smiles and has seen the world for what it is and seems to have a chip on his shoulder. A lot of K’s backstory is not explained, leaving him as an enigma throughout most of the movie, but you get the idea that he had a wife and kids, and something happened. K is the comic relief who gets thrust into a world where he has to become more serious about his role than a wisecracking, rule-breaking copper.
It opens on the Mexican-American border, where Patrol agents stop a truck full of illegals, and two men show up in black suits and recognize the driver as an alien named Mikey, a bug-eyed monster. K is forced to shoot him when he attempts to attack one of the patrol officers, and he erases the minds of everyone with a neuralyzer who saw the ordeal and blames it on a gas line explosion. These are some of the scenes that make the film entertaining. K’s partner D, decides to retire, and K erases his memory.
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James Edwards chases down a fleeing criminal who crawls up the side of a wall to the Guggenheim Museum. James catches him before he throws himself off the roof but seems confused about what the criminal is when he exhibits non-human behaviour. “What the hell are you? James asks “You’re world’s gonna end,” He tells James. K arrives and sees James as a new partner because of his ability to give chase to the Alien. K tells James the “Men in Black,” were established in 1961 as a secret organization that monitors and polices Earth when first contact was made with Aliens. Earth became a safe zone for Aliens to come to as refugees.
The agency is headed by Zed (Rip Torn,) where members wear black suits and black ties, have their fingerprints removed, and don’t exist anymore under government record. Zed feels something is on the rise and, indeed, he is right. A spacecraft crash lands into a truck, where a hillbilly farmer, Edger (Vincent D’Onofrio,) is taken over by the Alien inside; a nasty cockroach-looking thing that uses Edger’s skin as a disguise, and it gives D’Onofrio a chance to be funny when you see him stradling down the street, with a shotgun in his hand, because the Alien can’t completely fit into the skin.
Meanwhile, the Edgar bug kills two aliens in disguise at a restaurant, and it leads to the city morgue where Medical Examiner Laura Weaver (Linda Fiorentino) discovers something and catches the attention of the MIB. She and her cat become key to the plot, and it’s smartly written and engaging because the mystery of the bug’s plans gets revealed slowly throughout the movie, leading to an ending that is perfectly built up and explosively fun.
Director Barry Sonfield keeps the tension high throughout most of the movie and finds a way to keep the suspense going, while Edgar trashes through the city looking for something that causes an alien warship to enter Earth’s atmosphere and issue a warning to the MIB, so it gives the plot a deadly purpose. Will Smith smashes the role with comic relief and keeps the tone level while Jones is the balance to his wise-cracking antics, and it gets intense, especially towards the end of the film.
“Men in Black is a Sci-Fi comedy that knows it’s silly and doesn’t try to be anything more than a fun action movie with two solid leads and a purpose for the film to exist. Its big-budget special effects are something to behold, and when you see the bug towards the end, it’s guaranteed to scare the hell out of kids. You can almost bet we will see “Men in Black 2.”
8/10
