It’s not that it’s terrible exactly, but this latest instalment of the long-dormant intergalactic-secret service movie series is cripplingly timid in its approach. The closest we get to a new idea is the casting of two women in black – Emma Thompson is the head of the New York branch of the covert organisation; Tessa Thompson is the probationary agent who finds herself relocated to London, where Chris Hemsworth is the star of a bureau that may have been compromised by a mole.
The film borrows much from the structure and plot of the first movie, including some peripheral characters. A high-ranking member of an alien royal family is assassinated on Earth, leaving behind a small, seemingly innocuous artefact being pursued by the scum of the universe. Unfortunately the smarts, the sass and the wit of the original MIB is MIA.