I remember when the first Men in Black came out, and I saw it on VHS, I enjoyed the hell out
of it, and looked forward to the next one which again I saw on video or maybe
on TV, but anyway, I wasn’t exactly over enthused by it, it just seemed to lack
something, or maybe try and follow the formula of the previous film to closely.
Fast forward to now, and the basic story of the film, I’ll get to it later, is
something much more interesting and shows the series embracing the more
technological side of the science fiction universe that these characters
inhabit.
Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith reprise their roles as the
series protagonists, agent’s J and K, picking up where they have left off, with
great on screen chemistry, powered forward by zipping, witty dialogue. Whilst
due to story reasons, I’ll get to that soon, I promise, Will Smith has more
screen time, Jones’ character and portrayal of K is the main motivation for
both Smith and the story, giving the character a more vulnerable side to him,
than we have seen in the previous two films. Smith is on top comedic form as he
interacts with various alien and human characters, especially in the period of
the film set in 1969.
Josh Brolin is the main addition to the series, playing a
much younger K, in 1969, a performance which hits perfectly, avoiding the
potential risk of it becoming nothing more than an impersonation of Jones’
older version. Instead he plays him amusingly, giving the character a more
rounded performance, capable of being happy, and showing it. A fact that J
frequently points out, and calls him upon. This films villain is probably the
most sinister, but also the most entertaining, played by Jermaine Clement,
Boris the Animal is first humanoid(loosely speaking) villain that we have seen,
and one who is both intentionally funny and unintentionally funny at the same
time, sporting a Macho Man Randy Savage look.. A roaring stand off between him
and an early version is one of the films witty moments, not featuring J and K.
The basic plot of the film, is
that Boris the Animal escapes from Lunar Max (a prison on the jail) and manages
to travel back in time and kill K before he can stop him and arrest him. From
there on we follow J as he follows Boris back in time to stop him from killing K.
The film manages to keep the time travel aspects both simple and easy too
understand, as well as using it in clever, complicated ways to give us some new
uses for the theoretical technology.
Humour has always been one of the
driving forces in the Men in Black
series, the first one had some great physical and dialogue based comedic
moments, shared equally by J and K, as well as the other supporting characters
and villains. The second fell short, because it didn’t have the amount or
overall quality and diversity of jokes. Almost all of the humour comes from
either J or K. But this third sees some what of a return to the diverse humour
of the first, although the first act is at times somber and very foreboding,
there are still streaks and promises of what is come. But it truly starts after
the jump back into 1969, the clash of cultures between J and a younger K offer
up some of the highlights, along with a scene with Andy Warhol and two
policemen who take, somewhat of a dislike to J, are probably the comedic
highlights of the film.
Men in Black 3 is a return to the form of the first film, bringing
back the laughs and adding more a personal stake to the story than the two
previous films. The ending of this film, undoubtedly has more emotional weight
than the previous two films, and in a way ties the whole series together. I
thoroughly enjoyed the film, because I was surprised with how much fun I had
with it. Compared with the other films of the summer, this may not be one of
the big events, but it’s certainly worth a trip to the summer. Tonally, I
imagine it will sit closer to The
Avengers than The Dark Knight Rises or
Prometheus, and stands up as a
classic enjoyable summer blockbuster.
