Despite the different setting, it would be difficult for anyone to not compare "Men In Black" to "Wild Wild West" when the star and director are the same. This film just demonstrates that even if you bring all the right people together, with a big budget and the great special effects, if it isn't a good script it isn't a good movie. The premise of this film is probably it's weakest point. Half an hour into the film you might be asking yourself, "Just what the hell is going on anyway?
Now the special effects artisans have not let us down in the creativity department. There's plenty of dazzling sequences that astonish the audience with gadgetry a plenty. But the special effects are almost too special, at least for the time period the film is set in.
As I'm sure many will agree, "Men In Black" was a smash hit and a fine film that mixes equal parts comedy, special effects and science fiction. The outlandish elements of a film with an extraterrestrial background are easily swallowed with perfect suspension of disbelief. But if you tell the audience that it's the old west, then go easy on the 80 foot mechanical tarantulas if you please.
Well, let's just pretend that I fell asleep for the part where it's explained that time travelers from the distant future settled in the old west and brought their advanced technology to the past. That still wouldn't quite do it. Something about the characters aren't all that intriguing either.
Take Salma Hayek's "Rita" for example. I guess she's supposed to be a damsel in distress, but maybe she's more appropriately penned as a damsel inconvenienced. We don't really get a sense of what she's all about until the end of the picture. In one scene she panics and puts herself and our heros in jeopardy. When moments like that come up, it's difficult to comprehend why a character would do such a stupid thing. Let's not blame the character, after all, it's the writer who was in full control. My apologies to the writer if that particularly stupid scene wasn't in the script and rather made up on the fly, but I seriously doubt it.
Will Smith's character "West" is a Government agent/gunslinger who quite matter-of-factly brings up the "painful" death of his family within a thirty second scene which feels too much like a "and this is why he wants to kill the bad guy really really badly, and he'll deserve it too" moment.
Kevin Kline's character "Artemus" is a little more interesting, and of course, Kenneth Brannagh's "Dr. Loveless", being as evil and demented as he can be, but not too threatening. Again, if someone can simply explain how a person could possibly survive after being cut in half a hundred years ago, I'd happily overlook the elaborate steam engine wheelchair.
Given all that, the film had it's moments, it's lines, it's eye candy (and I'm not necessarily always talking about the special effects) but over all quite a disappointment. I'm reluctant to focus on the negative of any film, but Barry should've found a way to incorporate the aliens again. I guess it's not too long before we go back to tried and true and see "Men In Black 2".
Now the special effects artisans have not let us down in the creativity department. There's plenty of dazzling sequences that astonish the audience with gadgetry a plenty. But the special effects are almost too special, at least for the time period the film is set in.
As I'm sure many will agree, "Men In Black" was a smash hit and a fine film that mixes equal parts comedy, special effects and science fiction. The outlandish elements of a film with an extraterrestrial background are easily swallowed with perfect suspension of disbelief. But if you tell the audience that it's the old west, then go easy on the 80 foot mechanical tarantulas if you please.
Well, let's just pretend that I fell asleep for the part where it's explained that time travelers from the distant future settled in the old west and brought their advanced technology to the past. That still wouldn't quite do it. Something about the characters aren't all that intriguing either.
Take Salma Hayek's "Rita" for example. I guess she's supposed to be a damsel in distress, but maybe she's more appropriately penned as a damsel inconvenienced. We don't really get a sense of what she's all about until the end of the picture. In one scene she panics and puts herself and our heros in jeopardy. When moments like that come up, it's difficult to comprehend why a character would do such a stupid thing. Let's not blame the character, after all, it's the writer who was in full control. My apologies to the writer if that particularly stupid scene wasn't in the script and rather made up on the fly, but I seriously doubt it.
Will Smith's character "West" is a Government agent/gunslinger who quite matter-of-factly brings up the "painful" death of his family within a thirty second scene which feels too much like a "and this is why he wants to kill the bad guy really really badly, and he'll deserve it too" moment.
Kevin Kline's character "Artemus" is a little more interesting, and of course, Kenneth Brannagh's "Dr. Loveless", being as evil and demented as he can be, but not too threatening. Again, if someone can simply explain how a person could possibly survive after being cut in half a hundred years ago, I'd happily overlook the elaborate steam engine wheelchair.
Given all that, the film had it's moments, it's lines, it's eye candy (and I'm not necessarily always talking about the special effects) but over all quite a disappointment. I'm reluctant to focus on the negative of any film, but Barry should've found a way to incorporate the aliens again. I guess it's not too long before we go back to tried and true and see "Men In Black 2".