Men in Black II is a 2002 science fiction action comedy starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. The film also stars Lara Flynn Boyle, Johnny Knoxville, Rosario Dawson, Tony Shalhoub, Patrick Warburton and Rip Torn. The film is a sequel to the 1997 film Men in Black and was followed by Men in Black 3, released in 2012. This series of films is based on the Malibu / Marvel comic book series The Men in Black by Lowell Cunningham.

Plot[link]

In 2002, five years after the Men in Black, Agent J (Will Smith) is now the top operative for the MIB, the self-funded New York City-based agency that secretly monitors and regulates extraterrestrials' activity on Earth. J is largely without a partner, after Agent L (from the first film) decided to return to her former life working in a morgue. Since then, subsequent partners have not lived up to J's professional standards. While investigating a seemingly routine crime at a SoHo pizzeria, J uncovers a diabolical plot by Serleena, a shapeshifting Kylothian queen who disguises herself as a lingerie model (Lara Flynn Boyle), but resembles a plant-like hydra in her own form. The neuralyzed Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) has assumed civilian life as Kevin Brown, postmaster of a small town in Massachusetts, and to stop her, J must convince Kevin to rejoin MIB, because he is the only operative still alive who knows how to find what Serleena wants, the "Light of Zartha".

While J tries to deneuralyze Kevin, Serleena breaks into MIB resulting in a lock down; J and Kevin escape after being flushed from the building. J then takes Kevin to Jack Jeebs (Tony Shalhoub), who built an unofficial deneuralyzer. Although K eventually regains some of his memory, he still has no recollection of the "Light of Zartha" (he neuralyzed himself) but left himself a series of clues in case he needed to remember. The clues eventually lead to a videostore where they watch a tape that jars K's memory: 25 years ago, the Zarthan Queen Laurana arrived on Earth to try to hide the Light of Zartha, but the MIB refused to help due to their neutrality. Serleena arrived to steal the Light, but K activated the Zarthan ship and sent it away. Serleena, believing the Light is on board the ship, chased the ship, but not before fatally shooting Laurana. K then reveals that the ship was a decoy, and that the Light is still hidden on Earth.

Meanwhile, Serleena frees all of the MIB's high-security prisoners and uses them as henchmen. Believing that the Light is in the bracelet worn by Laura Vasquez (Rosario Dawson), a waitress at the pizzeria, Serleena kidnaps Laura and prepares to send her back to her homeworld. K and J, with the help of the "worm guys", assault MIB headquarters, defeat Serleena's henchmen, and rescue Laura. However, K warns them that if the Light is not taken off Earth and returned to Zartha, it will explode and destroy the planet. As they make their way to the departure point, Serleena gives chase but is eaten by Jeff, a giant alien worm living in the New York subway system. When they reach the departure point, K reveals that Laura is Laurana's daughter and the actual Light of Zartha (it's also suggested that he is her father as well). To save Earth and Zartha, Laura reluctantly leaves Earth, much to J's dismay, as he had developed feelings for her. Serleena returns to try to capture Laura again (having apparently assimulated Jeff into herself), but K and J manage to destroy her for good. To cover up the chaos caused by Serleena's rampage, K activates a giant neuralyzer hidden in the Statue of Liberty's torch. Now that Laura is gone, K and Agent Zed (Rip Torn), the head of MIB, try to console J for his loss, but he answers that he needs no consolation and had accepted her departure without much sorrow. To provide a measure of comfort, K puts the aliens found in a Grand Central Terminal locker, as one of the clues, in J's locker. After J suggests showing them that their world is bigger than a locker, K shows him and Frank (through a door) that they are in fact an alien species themselves, kept in a locker in an alien station, suggesting to his rookie worldview.

Cast[link]

Production[link]

Despite some initial involvement from David Koepp (who left to work on Spider-Man),^[1] the script was written by Robert Gordon and later revised by Barry Fanaro (who added pop culture references, something which Gordon had deliberately avoided).^[2] Sonnenfeld took issue with the producers' focus on the love story between Will Smith's and Rosario Dawson's characters, saying that "I learned on Wild Wild West that audiences didn't want to see Will as the straight man. And until Tommy comes back into the movie, by definition Will's the straight man."^[1] Fanaro condensed the first part of the film and brought Agent K in earlier.^[1] The climax of the film was originally to have taken place at New York City's World Trade Center. However, this had to be changed following the destruction of the buildings in the September 11 attacks.^[3] The day after the attacks of September 11, a spokesperson for the studio said that the ending would be refilmed.^[4]

Supervising sound editor Skip Lievsay used a Synclavier to recreate and improve the original recording of the neuralyzer sound effect from the first film (which was the sound of a strobe flash as it recycles) by removing some distortion.^[5] For some of the scenes with the Serleena creature, the sound crew "took tree branches, put them inside a rubber membrane and pushed that around and added some water."^[5] For the special effects scene where the subway train is attacked by Jeff the Worm, a specially designed vise was used to crush a subway car and make it look as if it had been bitten in half.^[2]

A video game partly based on the film was released in 2002 titled Men in Black II: Alien Escape.[1]

Release[link]

Critical reception[link]

Men in Black II despite being a financial success, did not gain as much of a positive reception that the original MIB had. The film received mixed reviews from critics, gaining a 39% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, as opposed to the 91% rating given for its predecessor, based on 190 reviews and a Metacritic score of 49.^[6][7] A. O. Scott of The New York Times said that, "Within the trivial, ingratiating scope of its ambition, though, the sequel is pleasant enough," and, noting the huge array of aliens designed by Rick Baker, said that the film "really belongs to Mr. Baker."^[8] A review in The Hindu called the film "worth viewing once."^[9] Another review from Digital Media FX magazine praised the spaceships as looking very realistic, but criticized many of the simpler visual effects such as the moving backgrounds composited behind the car windows using blue-screen (which it called a throwback to the special effects of earlier decades).^[10] In August 2002, Entertainment Weekly placed the Worm Guys among their list of the best CG characters, and said that the enlarged roles of both Frank the Pug and the Worm Guys in Men in Black II was beneficial for the "tiring franchise".^[11] The film earned a Razzie Award nomination for Lara Flynn Boyle as Worst Supporting Actress.^[12]

Box office[link]

Men In Black II was a commercial success, although not to the extent of the original. Released theatrically on July 3, 2002, Men In Black II charted at number one in its opening weekend at the box office with revenue of $52,148,751.^{[citation needed]} The film held onto the number one the following week with revenue of $24,410,311, a 53.2% decrease from its opening weekend.^[13] In the film's third week of release, it saw a 40.4% decrease with the revenue of $14,552,335, charting at number three.^[13]

After one month the film remained in the box office chart, at fourth place, with revenue of $8,477,202.^[13] Men In Black II fell out of the top-ten at the box office chart after its sixth week of release.^[13] After sixty two days of release in North America, Men In Black II grossed $190,418,803.^[14] 43.1% of the film's worldwide revenue of $441,818,803 came from North America.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

Film portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Men in Black II

• Official website
• Men in Black II at the Internet Movie Database
• Men in Black II at AllRovi