The official trailer for Barry Sonnenfeld's Men in Black arrived in 1997, introducing audiences to one of the most purely enjoyable science fiction comedies of its era, a film that combined spectacular visual effects with sharp comic timing and genuine wit to produce a blockbuster of considerable charm and invention that used its irresistible central premise, that aliens live among us and are monitored and policed by a shadowy government agency whose agents dress in black and carry neuralysers to erase civilian memories, as a vehicle for one of the decade's most perfectly matched comic partnerships and one of its most consistently entertaining summer entertainments. The trailer's most immediately striking quality is its confidence, presenting the film's central conceit with a deadpan assurance that makes the absurdity feel entirely natural and that establishes from its opening frames that this is a film that has found exactly the right tone for its material and has no intention of apologising for the pleasure it takes in its own premise. Sonnenfeld and his collaborators understood that the film's primary obligation was not to deliver the alien threat with any particular dramatic weight but to make the audience laugh and to make them care about the two men in black suits at the centre of the story, and the decision to cast Will Smith's charismatic energy against Tommy Lee Jones' perfectly calibrated world-weariness gives the film a comic dynamic of extraordinary effectiveness that the trailer establishes with complete authority in its very first moments of footage. The footage of James Edwards' recruitment into the Men in Black organisation and his gradual discovery of the alien world hidden within the familiar surfaces of New York City gives the trailer a dramatic arc and a sense of escalating wonder that make the film's premise feel genuinely exciting rather than merely clever, and the sequence in which Agent J is introduced to the organisation's extraordinary arsenal of alien weaponry, culminating in his selection of a comically small but devastatingly powerful handgun, gives the marketing its funniest and most characteristic moment and makes the case for a film that has understood the comic possibilities of its premise with complete intelligence and complete conviction.
First Impressions
The trailer establishes its comic register immediately, presenting the film's central conceit with a deadpan confidence that makes the absurdity feel entirely natural. Will Smith's charismatic energy and Tommy Lee Jones' perfectly calibrated world-weariness are established as the film's central comic dynamic from the first moments of footage, and the overall impression is of a production that has found exactly the right tone for its material and is entirely confident in its ability to deliver on the premise's considerable comic potential.
What the Trailer Reveals
The trailer sketches the film's premise with economy and wit, establishing James Edwards' recruitment into the Men in Black organisation and his partnership with the veteran Agent K as the narrative's driving relationship. The footage hints at a film that uses its science fiction premise primarily as a vehicle for comedy and character, with the alien threat providing spectacle while the human dynamic between its two leads provides the emotional core and the comic engine.
Music and Sound
Danny Elfman's score gives the film a playful orchestral identity that perfectly complements its comic register, and the trailer uses the music to amplify the footage's sense of fun and invention with considerable skill. Will Smith's theme song, one of the defining pop cultural artefacts of the summer of 1997, gives the trailer an additional layer of infectious energy that conveys the film's mainstream appeal with complete authority and that signals a blockbuster entirely at ease with its own pleasures.
Most Memorable Moment
The sequence in which Agent J is introduced to the Men in Black's extraordinary arsenal of alien weaponry, culminating in his selection of a comically small but devastatingly powerful handgun, is the trailer's funniest and most characteristic moment. It is a beat that captures the film's essential comic sensibility, finding humour in the contrast between the cosmic scale of its premise and the very human reactions of its protagonist, and conveying the film's tonal intelligence with a precision and a lightness of touch that make it feel entirely effortless.
Trailer Verdict
A trailer for one of the most purely entertaining blockbusters of the 1990s, a film that delivered its summer spectacle with genuine wit and warmth and that established one of the decade's most perfectly matched comic partnerships in its very first frames. Men in Black has aged remarkably well, its comic timing as sharp and its central performances as appealing as they were on first release, and this trailer captures its essential qualities with complete fidelity and complete affection. Sonnenfeld promised a summer film worth remembering. The trailer made that feel like a certainty. The film made it feel like an understatement.
0 comments