Men in Black III

            One thing I can appreciate when I sit down to watch a long-not-awaited sequel is honesty.  When absolutely nobody was clamoring to see the continued adventures of So-and-So, it’s nice when the film acknowledges that.  Oh yeah, and you also need to write a decent script if you’re going to convince people it’s worth seeing.

            On to the review!

            Here’s your number: 10.  That would be ten as in years, also known as a decade.  This is how far you have to travel back in time in order to see Men in Black II.  That movie itself was a sequel to a film that had come out 5 years prior.  Expect MIB4 in 2027.

            Oh yeah, and speaking of travelling through time, guess what the third movie in this never-really-planned-for trilogy revolves around?  If you said ‘I don’t really care,’ then you’re in lockstep with most of America!  For a movie starring a well-liked an respected actor (Tommy Lee Jones, reprising his role as K) and a money-maker (Will Smith as J), there seemed to be almost no excitement built up for Men in Black III. 

            Fortunately for us everything turns out much, much better than MIBII did, and the addition of Josh Brolin as young K was a stroke of genius.  That they didn’t try to over-complicate things by adding any love interest for J and only super-super briefly alluding to a romance for K was also greatly appreciated.  What we got was a slim, action-packed movie that focused on a few agents saving the world from imminent alien destruction.

            Our film starts us off in the here-and-now, 14 years after J is recruited into the Men in Black, and we get to see just how little anything has changed.  K is still surly, J is still talkative, and they still get stuff done.  We’re reminded of just how emotionally lacking K is when he gives a speech at Z’s funeral.  While humorously short, it is also pretty damn terrible.  They then lock horns a few more times until we’re introduced to the new villain, Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement).  This guy is so dangerous they went and built a prison just for him.  On the moon.

            So of course he escapes and sets into motion a plan to go back in time, kill K and destroy Earth.

Since this is movie land, J is the only person who notices K’s disappearance from the time stream and goes back to 1969 in an effort to save him.  There he’s aided by young K and a 5-dimensional being, Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), whose constantly bemused and bewildered character can see infinite possibilities and has to wait for the present to catch up to all the available futures.

As usual, the special effects are impeccable.  While the aliens have always been cartoonish in the MIB world, Boris is genuinely menacing and some of the thug aliens reveal good creepy qualities.  As usual, everything is well integrated and you don’t really notice any green-screen shenanigans.

Mix it all together and what we end up with is a light and fluffy summer film.  It’s certainly action-packed, but the nature of the blockbuster has passed it by.  There really isn’t enough world-shattering action to justify the title, but that’s okay.  Three movies in, Men in Black may have finally found its perfect niche: an action movie for people who find mindless summer films too thoughtful.