Movie Review: Men In Black 3

Plot: When Boris the Animal, an alien criminal from Agent K's past, breaks out of prison he travels back in time and kills K. Agent J, being the only one who remembers K must then go back to 1969 to stop the event from taking place.

After the flop of 2002's, Men In Black 2, which was truly terrible, it seemed that the MIB franchise was finished, they had not struck gold twice. Finally, ten years later another sequel was put into production and it seemed that it too would be a disaster. When MIB3 began shooting, there wasn't even a finished script, a certain doom for any film. Not only that but once the script was finished, they shut down production of the film completely for an entire month to go back and polish the scrip up even more, once again a very certain doom for any film. So finally, after several rewrites and a month long production hiatus we have Men In Black 3. But how does it hold up after a decade hiatus?

I'm happy to say that MIB3 is leaps and bounds better than the dreadful sequel. However, that isn't saying much, so let's dive in and see if instead of being better than the sequel it's just simply a good film.

As I watched the film I began to notice two things; the film is not that funny, but the story was good and I was still enjoying the film.

What I hated about the second film was that they forced so many slapstick, unfunny stuff into the film you couldn't even breathe. The pug Frank for instance is good for a laugh in a very small dose, but they put him in so much of the film by the end of it you were begging for him to be ran over. They threw alien after alien at you like the "ballchinians" which might seem funny to an elementary school boy, but the joke falls flat with adults. They crammed so much of that stuff into the film fishing for laughs, the story winds up dead on the side of the road.

Thankfully they stayed far away from that in this film. There were some laughs in the film, but it really went for a more serious tone. Of course it wouldn't be an MIB film if the Earth wasn't facing destruction from some alien race, but this time around you actually are worried that it might happen. The villain, Boris, is a much more devious character. He kills without question and their is no comedic tone to him, unlike the hilarious bug from the first film and the hollow, flat character of Serleena from the sequel. Boris's motive is revenge. He's been left armless in a lunar prison for 40 years thanks to Agent K and he wants his payback.

The cast this time is much improved as well. Will Smith took a break from acting in 2008 to devote his time to family, and he makes his comeback here on a high note. Smith is great as usual, but isn't given much to work with comedic wise. He has some great moments where you see the old school Will Smith, but his character this go around is given a much serious role. He's got some daddy issues going on, he's got trust issues with K and then once K's gone he jumps back in time just as the Earth is being destroyed by an alien invasion which causes for a more down to business J.

Josh Brolin joins the cast this go-round as a 29 year old Agent K. He does an outstanding job of personating Tommy Lee Jones throughout the film giving his character a much more likable personality. In 1969, K isn't the old, grump agent J is accustomed to. Something happened that made K that way and J is determined to find out what it was. With the roles now reversed, K is the young agent (new hotness) and J is the older senior agent (old and busted). This is something I thought they really dropped the ball on. I thought it could have made for some good laughs if they played off the fact J is now old and K is more limber and athletic.

Some new characters are introduced as well. At the start of the film, MIB director Zed has passed away and Agent O (Emma Thompson) takes on the role of new director. The 1969 version of Agent O is played by Alice Eve. I like the character of O, but I felt as if they could have developed her better. There was a story involving her in the film and instead of exploring it, they just beat around the bush with it and left you wondering towards the end. Both O's come off in the end flat. My new favorite character had to be Griffin. Griffin is an alien who is the last of his kind. His power is that he can see every possible timeline outcome, but he doesn't know which timeline he is in. He is a very in-depth and likable character I would like to see more of.

Comedy has beat the time travel aspect to death so I wasn't thrilled when I found out the synopsis was J going back to 69'. Thankfully, they do this in a very toned down manner. It's not your typical, cliched time travel film where everyone is wearing platform shoes and listening to disco and afros are all over the place. I really appreciated the fact that they went the conventional route on this and thought it was worth mentioning since it was one of my main concerns.

The film is not without it's flaws, there are some holes in the story. As I mentioned earlier, there is a whole backstory between K and O that never gets explained. In the film there is definitely an akward romantic relationship going on between the two. This story conflicts with the previous film's stories of K having to go missing in action from his fiance to join MIB. Both previous films stress the affection he has for his wife, so I found it odd that now all of a sudden he is having a relationship with someone else.

The conclusion of the film could have been developed better as well. The final showdown between J and K and the 1969 and 2012 Boris flakes out at the end. Throughout the film Boris goes around killing people left and right using a specific skill of his, but in the finale they water down his character. I felt during the film that this was a guy who could really pull off his plan. Of course I knew they wouldn't really have him win in the end, but that's how devious the character was written. Once the finale arrives, he becomes less frightning and more clumsy. Why would he throw J around four different times instead of just putting a spike in his head?

I went into MIB3 with the lowest of expectations and was very happy to walk out feeling new life and been put into the franchise. This is a fun franchise and I think there is a lot to be done with it. Tommy Lee Jones is only in the film roughly twenty minutes so maybe he isn't wanting to do any more, but there is a ton of potential for more film. I would have no problem seeing Will Smith take on the senior role while training new MIB agents.

Final Verdict: 7/10