Movies: Men In Black 3

Score:  ***1/2 out of *****


Long Story Short:  Agent J and (old) Agent K's great chemistry is replaced by Agent J and (young) Agent K's in this third installment of the sometimes great sometimes not so great Men In Black franchise. Sadly, this film simply cannot replicate the magic from the first film when it tries to - but the good news is that it creates some new magic of its own thanks to Brolin, some great supporting characters, and a surprisingly good story.




Now for my second movie review of the summer!  There are a couple comedies I'd still like to see that are already out, but they will be late, unfortunately.  On the other hand, I'm finally writing a review for a movie during its opening weekend!  Having immensely enjoyed the original Men In Black (although I thought the first sequel was not good at all), I have been looking forward to this one.  This third Men In Black was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld again and returns old stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, with the addition of Josh Brolin (No Country For Old Men).


The film starts on a moon prison holding various alien bad guys; a visitor helps an alien named Boris the Animal to escape, an alien intent on exacting revenge on the agent who removed one of his arms.  Back on Earth, Agents J (Smith) and K (Jones) respond to a typical alien disturbance in downtown NYC.  Agent K discovers a clue there that leads him to realize that Boris has escaped, though he withholds details from J.  That night, J feels something weird happen and when he gets to the MIB headquarters the next day he finds that K has disappeared.


J and the new MIB chief realize that Boris went back in time to change an important event.  As an alien fleet descends on Earth, J travels back in time to stop Boris.  He teams up with a younger, skeptical Agent K (Brolin) and Griffin (Stuhlbarg), an alien with a special ability, to stop Boris.  In replaying Agent K and Boris' confrontation in 1969, Agent J discovers why Agent K changes from the (relatively) easy-going youth (Brolin) to the reserved, grouchy old man (Jones).


The work of Men In Black's leading men, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, is certainly the main draw of the series.  For a variety of reasons, that is not the case in this installment.  Let's start with Will Smith,  since he's the only one in the film from beginning to end.  He gives pretty good effort throughout, but it's clear that he relished some scenes and kind of dragged through others.  It doesn't help that the script in the opening scenes gave him pretty poor material.  Still, overall a solid job.  Josh Brolin as the young Agent K, however, does a phenomenal job.  It's similar to his work in W. impersonating Bush (Texas drawl), but Brolin gets Jones' unique mannerisms down very well.  Michael Stuhlbarg plays Griffin, an alien in the kind of role that often annoys me, but here the script actually makes him better than otherwise; he is strange but also wise in a genuinely humble sort of way.


Jemaine Clement plays Boris the Animal, the villain, and you'll likely recognize his voice.  It is that voice, in fact, that makes him a distinct, dangerous and cunning bad guy.  There is also a strong cast of supporting roles, including Emma Thompson as the new MIB boss (sporting a hilarious impression of an alien language), Bill Hader as Andy Warhol (one of my faves on SNL, and just as good here), and Will Arnett as Agent AA (a very brief role on an elevator, but very amusing).  The low point acting in the film, and this truly shocks me, is Tommy Lee Jones.  Simply put, he looks tired and bored in this film and obviously phoned in his performance.  Granted, there are moments here and there of good Tommy, but overall he is bewilderingly bad.


Men In Black thrived on its quirky interactions with New Yorker aliens and its funky sense of humor.  That formula is really only evident in Agents J and K's first scene and, disturbingly, it's perhaps the worst part of the film.  The jokes are tired retreads, the performances are flat, and the interactions don't stand apart from the others in the series at all.  The aliens and assorted goo and destruction has always had a slightly cartoonish feel to them, and the same is true here (perhaps too fake in that unfortunate first J and K scene).  Several scenes were also clearly filmed to make more impact in 3D viewings (as usual, though, I saw it in 2D).  Fortunately, once Agent J travels back in time, things improve significantly, mostly thanks to Brolin's performance and Griffin.  The humor works much better in this section, and while the aliens are less numerous than you'd expect, the quirkiness is fresh once again.  And then there's the ending...


***


You might be thinking, after reading the review thus far, that three-and-a-half sounds a little high.  Up until the last few minutes, I was probably going to give this one three stars.  However, the ending adds a twist that, while perhaps a little cliched, fits in perfectly with Agent J and K's relationship over the three films, despite the filmmakers not probably having thought of it before this film.  I was expecting to love the Agent J and K back-and-forth and the bizarre collection of aliens, like the other installments.  Instead, Brolin completely blew Jones out of the water (and mercifully had far more screen time), and the overall story actually trumped the creativeness of the aliens, save for Griffin.  In other words, not what I was expecting at all.  If you're a big fan of Men In Black, I would recommend seeing this in the theater.  If not... well, you can probably afford to wait for Netflix/other rental options.