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Men in Black II (Superbit Collection)
It's tough to make a good sequel to a successful movie. For every Toy Story 2, there are a dozen ho-hum follow-ups like Austin Powers 2, not to mention the howlers like Highlander 2 (in which the phrase "There can be only one" should have been heeded by the filmmakers). Men in Black II isn't a complete disgrace, but neither is it a particularly good follow-up on the genuinely funny and original Men in Black.
Several years have passed since the events of the first Men in Black, and Agent Jay (Will Smith) is now a seasoned part of the MIB organization. Saving ignorant New Yorkers from alien perils is just in a day's work, so saving the planet is no big deal, either, except that in MIB II, it turns out that the key to saving the Earth from the Kylothians rests in discovering a secret known only by one agent... Kay (Tommy Lee Jones), who's been "neuralyzed" into forgetting everything he once knew about the MIB. Oops.
Nobody seems to have quite the same energy in MIB II as they did in MIB. Will Smith tries his best, but somehow he doesn't seem comfortable with his character as a seasoned agent; the cheerful energy and sense of wonder that he radiated in MIB has simmered down to a general sarcasm. Tommy Lee Jones seems similarly caught between trying to recapture the deadpan humor of his character in the first movie, and trying to present Kay as an actual three-dimensional character who is struggling with a major change in his life.
That leads us into one of the main problems with MIB II: that it tries to mix in some "serious" drama into the story... a fault that MIB carefully avoided. The romantic subplot for Jay seems forced and adds nothing to the story; likewise, the attempt to shoehorn Kay's character into a "finding out who he really is" character-development story just calls attention to the fact that MIB II handles comedy much better than it handles drama. The ending of MIB, with Kay's decision to be neuralyzed and return to the life he'd lost, adds an effective touch of pathos to the film, but it works precisely because it's just a tiny hint that there's a real human being with a life story behind the black suit.
Apart from the uneven tone, the plot of MIB II isn't anything to write home about. It borrows substantially from the plot of the first film, for one thing: c'mon guys, couldn't you have thought of a different premise than "the Earth will be destroyed if Alien Artifact X is not found in Time Period Y"? At only 88 minutes long, MIB II is even shorter than the first film, but somehow it feels longer. I remarked in my review of the first film that everything was in correct proportions, with the action and special effects serving the plot and humor, and not the other way around. Not so in the sequel. The action sequences are lengthy and fairly pointless (and one of them is cribbed from the first movie, to boot), and much of the CGI work with the aliens is there just to show off.
When all's said and done, I did give two and a half stars to this film, which, given its defects, is reasonably generous. What does work well in MIB II? Scattered throughout the film are various funny one-liners and visual gags, though not so many as in the first movie. By far the funniest part of the movie is the return of Frank (voiced by Tim Blaney) from the first movie, the alien whose disguise is a pug dog. (The same canine actor plays the dog in both films, as well as the same voice actor.) The scenes with Frank are almost all hilarious, with the kind of inspired silliness that is exactly what the movie needed. It's just too bad that the rest of the film doesn't measure up.
The DVD
Men in Black II comes on a single-sided, dual-layer DVD. The Superbit release of MIB II comes in a keepcase that's enclosed, in turn, in a cardboard sleeve that reproduces the cover art on the keepcase. What the point of this is, other than to gratuitously waste paper, escapes me.
Video
MIB II's high-bit-rate, anamorphic widescreen transfer provides a nicely detailed, sharp, natural-looking picture. The color palette in MIB II seems to lean more toward blacks, grays, and whites than the more colorful first MIB, so there's not much occasion for the transfer to show off its colors; the contrast looks excellent, however, with good detail, strong black tones, and crisp whites. The image appears to be entirely free of noise and print flaws, and I also didn't notice any edge enhancement. While MIB II isn't a film that calls attention to its visuals (there's not much by way of interesting cinematography here), an attentive eye will note that this transfer is very good indeed.
The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Audio
MIB II offers a choice of a DTS and a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. There's some really excellent use of surround here for effects, in many of the scenes, with the rear and side channels getting used extensively for directional effects. The sound quality is high, with both dialogue and music natural-sounding and in good balance with each other; everything is clear and there's no background noise at all. The overall experience isn't quite as immersive as it could have been, perhaps because the music doesn't take full advantage of the surround environment.
Subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Thai are also included.
Extras
As we would expect from a Superbit release, there are no special features on this DVD... even though there are nearly 4 GB of extra space on the disc. Yes, the high bit-rate transfer and two soundtracks only fill up 5.3 GB, and given that a dual-layer DVD can hold up to 9 GB of data, it's clear that a substantial part of the disc space is simply unused.
Now, it's true that the Superbit audio and video quality are close to "as good as it's possible to get." That part of the Superbit advertising I have no qualms about, at least in the case of this film. However, in this case "as good as it gets" still leaves some space to play with. The outstanding transfer and DTS/5.1 tracks could have been accompanied by at least some special features without impinging on the quality of the film transfer in the least.
It looks to me that while other studios are showing that it's possible to produce fantastic single-disc transfers with special features included, the Superbit line is a gimmick to sell bare-bones DVDs without making the consumer complain about the lack of special features.
One aspect of the Superbit line that I admit to liking quite a bit are its menus. Yes, they're basic. No, they're not "interactive" or themed to the film. But they do what menus are supposed to do: present the available options clearly, make easy, rapid navigation easy, and in short minimize the amount of wasted time between popping in the DVD and actually watching the film.
Final thoughts
MIB II is a clear victim of sequel-itis; it's not so horrible as to make you wish you hadn't watched it, but it doesn't hold a candle to the fun and funny original Men in Black. Again in contrast to the first film, MIB II has very limited replay value, as evidenced by the fact that I found it reasonably diverting while I was watching it, but the more I thought about it later, the less satisfying I found it. If you are sure to keep your expectations really low, then MIB II is probably worth a rental; it does have some very funny sequences, and at less than an hour and a half, won't take up much of your time. The outstanding transfer and DTS sound will make this worth considering as a purchase for those who do like the film, although the lack of special features makes the non-Superbit special edition release worth considering instead.
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