Men In Black International — How to Build a Toxic Hero | Anatomy Of A Failure

Sony's Men In Black International continues the long 2019 list of Hollywood flops by being one of the incompetent movies of the year. With all the drama behind the scenes, this film is too much of a mess to properly analyze in adequate time, but luckily, that can be done by analyzing just one aspect of it that represents all the central problems it has -- the hero. In today's episode of Anatomy of a Failure, let's take a lesson from MIB International on how to create one of the most boring main characters ever.

#AnatomyOfAFailure #MenInBlackInternational

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Men In Black: International
Roughly based on the Lowell Cunningham Marvel comic book of the same name, this film follows the Men in Black film series of previous years. A new team is protecting the earth from a special kind of shapeshifting alien in this adventure as Agent H. (Chris Hemsworth) and Agent M. (Tessa Thompson) attempt to protect earth honest trailer men in black international everything wrong with cinemasins men in black international men in black international full movie watch online free men in black international hd clip best moments from an intergalactic takeover; another enemy closer to home has penetrated the organization in the form of a mole. Directed by F. Gary Gray and co-written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway

[Filmento]

The new writers' room has kept me pretty occupied, but don't think I forgot about you Fellas and Fellarettes!

And big ups to all my Patrons for helping me keep the content coming. Couldn't do this without you!!

[Tarkus_H]

When will Hollywood learn?
Strong FEMALE character = no
Strong female CHARACTER = yes

[VinceLyle]

First movie: So, becoming a Man in Black is really difficult,


International: Actually, super easy. Barely an inconvenience.

[terryfuldsgaming]

"because I'm smart" smart people dont tell you that, they show you...

[kiyopawn]

Being a girl shouldn't be a trait, of a character. There are other things a girl character can revolve around in writing.

[enigma-ofdq]

This whole "empowerment" somehow makes everything even more sexist. As a girl myself, I hate it.

[bibbus]

MIB international is a perfect example of a movie that simply didn’t need to be made

[vizeas]

As a woman I can say that all these overly aggressive pro female movies are horrible. Instead of writing a strong female character why won’t they write a strong character that happens to be female. Stop dumbing down the male characters because intelligent women and men can coexist with one another. Look at ripely from aliens one of the best characters ever written and the fact that she was a woman was not constantly thrown in the audience face. She was challenged by her peers she was flawed she was scared and that made her likeable.

[DirtyPrancing]

It would have been so cool if there was this alien conflict but the MIB rejected her and even wiped her mind when she brought it to them. Luckily, she had kept contingency plans like videos and diaries to combat that. So the stakes are high, she can't be caught by either side, and she has to solve the central conflict without any of the tools/advantages, thus earning her place in the MIB.

[kolonarulez]

How neat would it have been if it was an alien who grew up on earth who wanted to become an MiB agent?

[monalisavieru]

For me Men in black will always be Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Period!

[liamlewis]

It’s funny how “Molly” is more like the soldiers who don’t use the table in the first MIB

[Unethical.Dodgson]

J wasn't just the "opposite of good agent material but stood out". He stood out because he was, in fact, a cut above the rest.

But he SHOWED it. While everyone else was struggling with the uncomfortable chairs and ruining their test papers. J decided to break with convention, try something new, and got himself a table. Not concerned with how it made everyone else see him. Something an agent needs.
Then in the shooting gallery. Everyone else saw Aliens as the bad guys and shot at them. J had no prejudice whatsoever. He didn't see the Aliens as the bad guys (something the MIB would find an attractive quality in him) and instead looked for the one thing there that would actually be out of place for a person used to dealing with aliens.

It was easy to see why he was Agent material. None of the other guys there acted anything like him. They acted like narrow-minded cowboys while J showed imagination and promise.

[eduardovalentin]

This movie came out in june, and I already forgot it literally existed.

[MrGeorgeFlorcus]

See, in the scene where all the soldiers are doing a written test with Will Smith in MIB, a collection of seemingly "perfect" candidates are being pitted against one normal dude, and you automatically think the normal dude will under-perform.
But despite being a normal guy, he was the only one who thought to bring the table over to him to write the test. Everyone else just followed orders and did what they were told, he was the one who thought outside the box.
So he ended up getting the job not being he was smarter, stronger, or faster (Though he did manage to chase that one alien down on foot), it was because he was willing to open his mind to new possibilities outside of established convention. He wasn't perfect, he just had the right potential.

And that's what makes good protagonists compelling; if you can sum it up in a single word, that word would be "potential". They aren't what they need to be, not yet, but they have the "potential" to grow and become what they need to be if they make the right decisions and do what needs to be done.

Being perfect from the beginning and having nothing to strive for completely undermines that whole concept, and it turns your whole narrative arc into a flat line.

[BlackWind]

So basicallly just another case of "she's talented, smart, athletic, powerful, perfect from the start with no needing of character development *because woman* ". When are these people gonna learn?

[ScrambledAndBenedict]

You know what would have been a cool twist? If Molly was some kind of artificial sleeper agent created by the enemy aliens to infiltrate MIB, get the weapon, and bring it to them. It would explain why she was such a shallow and undeveloped character: she was literally created with the sole purpose of getting into MIB. It would explain why she was so good at everything and why she could instantly handle alien tech: she was created with these abilities so they would accept her. Imagine the stuff you could do with that? Like, they could first discover this when they research her story about how MIB erased her parent's minds, and perhaps they learn that family didn't have a kid at all and that's why they only erased the minds of the parents. Perhaps have her partner be kind of a dick to her, like he's jealous that she's so quickly becoming so good at things it took him years to learn and master. She could have this really somber sort of inflection on herself, about what being "alive" and "human" actually means once she learns she's actually only a few months old and all her memories of friends, family, and events are all false, and that could be her asshole partner's redeeming moment where we learn he's not actually such a bad person at heart: he comforts her and tells her that no matter where she came from, she's still a person with feelings, emotions, and wants and needs who can choose her own path in life. Then maybe finish off with a moment where she decides her origins don't matter, that she's alive and she is going to live the way she wants to, and betrays her creators to help MIB save the world. Then finally in the end, perhaps she leaves the MIB, deciding she wants to just live life as a human and see where life takes her rather than following her programming of "JOIN MIB". Think like MIB meets Blade Runner or Detroit: Become Human.

[MiggyBenz]

On the scene where the lil alien said “are you a queen?” And she said “besides the fact that all woman are queens no” or some shit like that pissed me off at how hard she was trying to act empowered 🤣😭

[Johnnymagnet]

The biggest flaw of this film is how quickly she got the job. I feel like I'm watching bad fan fiction with a Mary Sue main character. Everything just gravitates to her, for no reason other than she's the main character.

[DonDeDon]

Literally she’s the best at everything. How are we supposed to empathize with that?! It’s like Hollywood doesn’t understand that a good character doesn’t just wake up the best at everything.