Men in Black 3

Rating: 7/10 (18 November 2012)

The first film was fantastic fun creating a star in the former Fresh Prince star, both acting and singing/rapping the number one song, the sequel however was a disappointing let down, so it was good to see the third instalment get things back on track, from director Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family, Men in Black, Wild Wild West). Basically Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement), the last of the predatory Boglodite race, escapes the maximum high security alien prison based on the moon, and he is seeking revenge against the agent who took off his left arm and put him in captivity, that is Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), who is still partnered with Agent J (Will Smith) at Men in Black. K knows something that he is not telling J about his past with Boris, only telling that he regrets not killing him when he had the chance in 1969, and whatever happened explains his crankiness over the years, and unknown to him the alien villain is travelling back in time to wipe his existence entirely. The next day J is having strange feelings, and going to see his friend he finds that K and his apartment have all but disappeared, and when he goes to MIB he is looking for his partner, but no-one, including the new chief Agent O (Emma Thompson), who took over after the passing of Zed, knows of the existence of Agent K. Eventually after some questions and symptoms explanations O realises that J has suffered effects of a change in the space time continuum, K has indeed been erased from existence, Boris travelled back to 1969 to kill him, and this also threatens a protective power source for the Earth, the ArcNet, not being put where is meant to go. So J time jumps to 1969, one day before K is meant to die, and despite warnings not to he runs into Young Agent K (Josh Brolin), aged twenty-nine, and it is only before a possible memory wipe in the Neuralyzer that J can convince his younger friend of who he is and what he knows about him, and they team together to save Earth from the potential future. While J and Young K follow the clues to try and find Boris, he meanwhile has found his younger self so that they can team together and kill their enemy and take over the world by changing the event that K is meant to make happen, this is revealed to be at Cape Canaveral, the place the first successful mission to the moon launched the rocket, and the protective ArcNet is to be placed on it. There is a point when Young K wants to give up after some hardships and disasters, but J reveals his true reason for being in the past, besides saving the Earth, so they do go the launch site together, along with the strange but all-knowing alien Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg) who uses his power of passing future knowledge to get a Colonel (Mike Colter) to let them pass security. The two agents fight the two Boris incarnations on the scaffolding of the rocket that is to launch, future Boris is killed first after the help of another time jump and he falls under the rocket blasters to be incinerated, while past Boris has his left arm taken off by freezing it with liquid nitrogen and shattering it off. After the ArcNet is successfully put on the rocket to blast into space and to release its power over the Earth, there is a last surprise as the Colonel comes to congratulate them and young Boris appears to kill the Colonel, and that is when Young K pulls out his gun to kill him, once and for all, and J has a shock of his own when he sees his childhood self, James (Cayen Martin), with his future friend, and it explains he was neuralyzed so he would not remember the death of his father. With the time continuum back to normal J returns to the present day, and is happy to see K alive and well, and he is thankful now that he knows more about him, and the last scene sees Griffin warn of an asteroid momentarily threatening to destroy Earth because K didn't leave a tip, of course he remembers and leaves it and the asteroid hits a satellite instead. Also starring Alice Eve as Young Agent O, Bill Hader as Andy Warhol, Nicole Scherzinger as Boris's girlfriend Lilly and Michael Chernus as Jeffrey Price. Smith is still fantastic with his cool demeanour and modern wise cracks, Jones is still likable with his time on screen being moody and his small quips, and Brolin is a terrific addition as the younger version of Jones who is mildly grouchy but gets just as many funny lines. The story of time travelling and the changes in the past for the future has been done, but this is done with a good witty script, a good amount of slapstick and dialogue jokes, and as usual the great special effects on computer and in makeup to create the fascinating alien creatures, a good fun science-fiction comedy. Very good!