Men in Black 3 (2012)

Director:  Barry Sonnenfeld

It’s been 10 years since Men in Black 2 underwhelmed at the box office.  Although successful financially, it seems agreeable among most critics and audiences that the sequel was a disappointment.  The first Men in Black was released in 1997 and helped solidify Will Smith as the king of 4^th of July summer box office.  This was essentially his follow up to Independence Day and the movie was a huge, lasting entertainment.  I re-watched both movies prior to seeing Men in Black 3 and I can say that not much has changed over time.  I still think the original was a genius piece of oddball comedy, which completely benefits from the chemistry between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, while the follow up just feels uninspired.  So, it’s understandable that prospects for Men in Black 3 didn’t seem too exciting.

So is part 3 any good?  I think so.  Instead of a total retread of plot devices, this chapter actually furthers the story line and characters of Agents J (Smith) and K (Jones, also played in younger form by Josh Brolin).  The movie also gives you something new in Josh Brolin, who does a very entertaining Tommy Lee Jones impersonation.  The cadence of his voice and mannerisms are uncannily similar to Jones and their physical appearances are more of a match than I would have thought.  The movie is worth seeing for Brolin’s performance alone.  A nice plus is that Smith and Brolin also share a great comedic chemistry together to match that of Smith and Jones.  The crux of the story is that Agent J, through a series of events, finds out that to save the world he must journey back in time to save Agent K from being hunted down by the movie’s baddie (Jemaine Clement, doing a wonderfully creepy job as Boris the Animal).  By eliminating K, Boris hopes to set off a chain of events that will allow him to take over the world and pretty much wipe out humanity.  Thus, Smith meets the younger Agent K and they share an adventure that leads to certain secrets about our agents that we didn’t know, while trying to prevent Boris from enacting his master plan.

So, without giving anything major away, I’ll focus on what I enjoyed about this movie.  It moves with a quick, solid pace.  Smith, Jones and Brolin are all enjoyable actors that fit these roles.  Smith delivers one-liners better than most comedians working today.  He’s still one of the most likable personalities on screen.  I liked that they brought newness to the story while also giving us an assortment of aliens (good and bad) which are a custom of the films.  They still bring a sense of funhouse, gross-out tactics and slimy goo wherever they can fit it in and some of the action scenes in the film are highly entertaining. 

High points all around for this additional chapter of Men in Black.  If they never make another, this one allows the franchise to close on a high mark.  Of course, this is a Hollywood produced movie, so if the profit margin was high enough, we can bet more black-suited agents will visit our multiplex at some point soon.