Men In Black International Review: 2 Ups & 7 Downs

4. The Bland Visuals & Direction

F. Gary Gray is an absolutely rock solid director with the recent likes of Straight Outta Compton and The Fate of the Furious under his belt, so it's a major disappointment that his latest effort is so utterly lacking in personality from a visual perspective.

Granted, the film has a modest budget by Hollywood blockbuster standards, costing "only" $110 million, roughly half of what Men in Black III cost and only slightly higher than the original film's $90 million price tag.

Even so, the staging of relatively basic, inexpensive scenes is completely unremarkable, and when it comes to the action, Gray doesn't come up with a single memorable set-piece, while clearly stretching his VFX budget past breaking point.

Also disappointing is almost completely ditching the practical effects present throughout the original trilogy.

Rick Baker's incredible creature work on the first three films lent them a lot of their panache, but here precious few of the alien designs prove particularly charming or even basically memorable.

Despite the rich world presented by the prior MiB films, International just looks like any regular, garden variety globe-trotting blockbuster.