I actually never thought there would be a third Men in Black movie, considering just how badly the second one was received. Sure, Men in Black II made a ton of money, but when everybody thinks the movie sucks, that can really damage whether or not there's another sequel. But ten years have passed since that crappy second chapter in the series, so hopefully that's been enough time for everyone involved to have learned their lesson and made a good Men in Black sequel for a change.
As the movie begins, notorious alien criminal Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement) makes a daring escape from a prison on the moon. His intention: return to Earth to settle his long-standing grudge with Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), who shot off one of Boris's arms during a conflict in 1969. Agents K and J (Will Smith) hear about the escape and end up getting involved in a shootout with Boris at a Chinese restaurant. Boris escapes, yet leaves J curious about the bad blood between Boris and K. Finding K unwilling to talk discuss it, J starts going through MIB's records to see what happened. He's impeded, however, when he discovers much of the information is classified.
J wakes up the next morning and when he arrives for work, he notices something weird. His repeated requests to speak to K are met with confusion until Agent O (Emma Thompson) tells him that K has been dead for over forty years. He realizes that Boris has traveled back in time to 1969 and succeeded in murdering K, having completely erased him from existence. The only way he can return things to the way he knew them is to go back in time himself and save the day. He teams up with an initially skeptical younger K (Josh Brolin) upon his arrival in 1969, and the duo has to stop the combined efforts of the Boris from 1969 and the Boris from 2012 before they can kill K.
It took them ten years to do it, but they've actually made a Men in Black sequel that doesn't suck. Men in Black 3 is miles ahead of that turd from 2002. But that doesn't mean the movie is great. Actually, it's just an okay movie at best. It's an acceptable way to spend an hour and a half, and then forget about once the closing credits have rolled. There's nothing wrong with that, however. Men in Black 3 is still a fun piece of entertainment that's well worth checking out.
Returning to the franchise for the third time is director Barry Sonnenfeld, who's only done one movie and some TV shows in the ten years since the last Men in Black movie. I know I was critical of Sonnenfeld's work on the second movie, but Sonnenfeld makes up for it this time around. He never once lets the movie lag or get boring, and he gets more creative than he did in the first two movies. This creativity can be seen in the movie's cinematography. The first two movies were standard, almost generic-looking efforts at times, but Men in Black 3 goes all-out in an effort to make the movie feel grander than it might actually be. It might be Sonnenfeld playing with it to justify the movie's 3D effects, but I'm not going to complain.
It helps that Sonnenfeld is working with special effects that are better than what he'd had before. The CGI is a lot less annoyingly conspicuous, and the practical effects ― specifically Rick Baker's aliens ― are outstanding. Why couldn't the effects look like this in the other Men in Black movies? Can we go back in time and give the first two better effects? Is that possible?
It's unfortunate, however, that the movie's awesome effects are muddled by a shoddy conversion into 3D. Maybe it was just the theater I saw the movie at having a crappy setup, but the 3D is absolutely awful. It's pointless, adding nothing to the movie beyond one or two scenes that look kinda cool in 3D. Outside of that, it just gave me a headache. If you're going to see the movie, do yourself a favor and see it in 2D. The extra dimension isn't worth it.
And not only is the movie hurt by the terrible 3D conversion, but it has a script that's a little on the mediocre side of things as well. Written by Etan Cohen (and given uncredited rewrites by David Koepp and Jeff Nathanson), the script wasn't finished when production began and it's painfully obvious. The story feels disjointed at times, like it's just being made up as the movie goes along. It also suffers from the same problem that plagued the other two movies: a villain who's in the background for the majority of the movie. Granted, Boris has a bit more screen time than the Edgar bug and Serleena did previously, but he still feels like a non-factor for half of the movie. Why should I care about the Men in Black villains when the movies themselves can't be bothered to most of the time?
At least the script has some really funny moments, along with a strong cast to boost the material. Will Smith once again returns to play Agent J, and he puts forth a performance that I felt was better than what he contributed to the first two Men in Black movies. It helps that Smith has vastly improved and matured as an actor over the last several years. Smith is entertaining and fun as always, and his evolution as an actor really makes J feel more mature as well.
Josh Brolin also provides a wonderful turn as the younger Agent K. Doing his best Tommy Lee Jones impression, Brolin is very funny in the part. He's likable, charming, and very funny. He's so believable, in fact, that it feels like they actually de-aged Jones and stuck them in front of the camera. The sad part is that Jones himself is barely in the movie. He's sadly missed, but Brolin's performance helps relieve some of that. Jones does make a good impression in spite of his incredibly limited screen time, though.
And speaking of limited screen time, Jemaine Clement doesn't have a huge role as our resident villain. Clement's character is just kinda there. His role might be a bit beefier than the villains that came before him, but he's still a non-factor for half the movie. Clement is fine in the role, though, so I can't complain about his performance.
So just how would I go about summing up my thoughts about Men in Black 3? It was... not bad, I guess. It has both its goods and bads, but the movie is just okay. After ten years, I'd hoped everyone could have come up with something better than "okay." But compared to Men in Black II, I'll take "okay" over "crappy" any day of the week. Men in Black 3 is still an enjoyable and entertaining flick that I honestly enjoyed in spite of its flaws. And thus, the movie gets three stars on the usual scale. And for all its flaws, at least Men in Black 3 was a better franchise revival than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Don't even get me started on that one.
Final Rating: ***
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