Bad Aliens, whatcha gonna do?

"Men in Black 3"

Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld

Written by: Etan Cohen

Starring: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin

Rated Pg-13

106 Minutes

"Men In Black 3" plays kind of like a cinematic tightrope act.  It walks a fine line between trying extremely hard to keep the audience engaged and running a real risk of losing its footing at any moment.  Given the challenges of trying to keep a fifteen year-old franchise relevant, "Men in Black 3" mostly works.  That may be due to the consistent direction of Barry Sonnenfeld, and considering that the production of this third offering was plagued with issues and was victim to re-writes, it is a worthy installment that will hopefully serve as the swan song to the "Men in Black."

The consistent pleasure with these films has been the chemistry and interplay between Tommy Lee Jones' Agent K and Will Smith's Agent J.  The original "Men in Black" had Agent K recruiting J as his new partner.  In a sci-fi twist on the buddy formula, Agent K's droll, straight-laced expressions make him a perfect counterpoint to Agent J's over-the-top, smug expressions and one-liners.  The quirkiness of that dynamic makes it endearing without being awkward, and that remains intact as this picture opens.  Missing this time is Rip Torn as the enigmatic Zed, who I felt was the series' best character.  Instead, the Men in Black agency is now headed by 'O' (Emma Thompson).  Thompson, who is always welcome in any picture, here seems just slightly off tone.  The plot this time around concerns one 'Boris the Animal' (Jemaine Clement), a Boglodite alien who was captured and imprisoned on the moon after Agent K shot off his arm in 1969.  The opening sequence has Boris escaping from the moon, and with none too subtle exposition, explains that he intends to seek revenge on Agent K by traveling back in time to kill him before he has an opportunity to shoot off his arm.

One might rightly question the extreme vengeance Boris seeks, but once you see what his remaining arm is capable of, it almost resonates with the audience why he might want the other one back.  Through a perplexing series of events, and after a shoot-out in a seedy chinese restaraunt that recalls some of the best sequences of the previous films, Agent K is seemingly erased from existence.  Everyone but Agent J has apparently lost their memories of dear Agent K, and after observing a very specific craving exhibited by J, Agent O postulates that this must be a result of a disturbance in the space-time continuum.  Of course.  Working together they confirm that Boris must have gone back to 1969 and succeeded in his assassination plot.  The obvious solution in these situations is to send Agent J back through time to stop Boris from killing off K.  How he is capable of achieving this results in the film's best sequence, albeit in well-rendered CGI.

Admittedly, the central plot of "Men in Black 3" feels a bit shoehorned into the established world of the series and Boris the Animal is perhaps a bit TOO sinister for the light-hearted nature of the franchise.  This movie goes to great lengths to establish the backstory and history of Agent K, but if Boris is so central to that history, why was he never at least mentioned in the earlier films?  My guess is that the story hadn't been thought of.  Considering that filming got underway without a second or third act, perhaps the filmmakers didn't yet know what to make of Boris as a character.  Strange then, that the third act of "Men in Black 3" is also its strongest.  The first act relies so heavily on our familiarity with the two main characters, that the screenplay too confidently jumps headlong into the complex mythology of time travel and K's history with Boris.  The problem with that is that it's been fifteen years since the first film and ten years since the second.  The audience needs time to get reacquainted with our Men in Black, but instead, Tommy Lee Jones is literally whisked away within minutes to make way for Josh Brolin to step in as a younger version.

Josh Brolin as a young Agent K is inspired casting, but not quite as convincing as the trailers may have suggested.  It was well-publicised how much time Brolin spent studying Tommy Lee Jones' manerisms and movements, but there is still a slight disconnect between the two men.  A more convincing look-alike for my money is Josh Hartnett; but the caliber of Brolin's performance is touching and respectful to the older version.  Will Smith remains engaging as Agent J and is able to deliver one-liners better than any blockbuster actor I can think of.  The nice thing is, despite re-writes, this screenplay is smart and funny, which goes along way for selling an almost stale franchise.  I'm not sure this third outing is entirely justifiable, especially amid the start of a summer with two of the biggest films of all time being released, but it's a significant amount better than the second film and almost as good as the first.

"Men in Black 3" is a good way to send off the series, I think; and Barry Sonnenfeld would be wise to do so.  With the ending, you get the sense that that is even what he had in mind.  It is surprisingly emotional, and I had to dab my eyes a couple times.  That isn't something to be expected with a picture like this, but it is to its credit that it was able to illicit that reaction.  Between that and the amusing chemistry of the three leads, "Men in Black 3" is worth experiencing.  It goes without saying that you can skip the 3D.  It adds nothing.  The minor compalint is that it spends a bit too much time focusing on time travel and an almost too sinister villain to really immerse us in the alien mythology the way the first film did.  Despite that, I suppose the best compliment I could pay "Men in Black 3" is that you don't want to be neuralyzed after watching it.  And Will Smith certainly doesn't need to improvise one of his wild stories to justify the price of admission.