Review - Men in Black III

Rating: 7/10 (2 July 2012)

It's been fifteen years since the entertaining first Men in Black film, and ten years since the flawed yet still slightly enjoyable sequel Men in Black II. Now comes the third installment in the series, Men in Black III. Of course, this sequel, like any sequel of this kind, especially having been made a decade after its last predecessor, gave me a few doubts before watching it. However, I finally saw it in the theater today, and I enjoyed it. Agent J (Will Smith) and Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) have returned to the screen, and they deliver some nice and witty entertainment.
The film starts out on a prison on the moon, called Lunarmax (which is next to the original lander and American flag from the Apollo mission), from which the antagonist, Boris the Animal, escapes. In 1969, Boris encountered Agent K, who shot his arm off and had him arrested, and also set up some sort of defense system to protect the earth from any invasions by Boris' alien race. Boris, having escaped from prison, travels back in time to this incident and kills K, altering the MIB agency and putting earth in danger (the protection system no longer exists - Boris stopped it from getting set up in the past). So now, in the present, Agent J must travel back in time to prevent Boris from causing all this and restore the real timeline. There's more to the story, but I won't spoil it.
Luckily, Men in Black III isn't just a typical modern generic blockbuster. I even had a feeling that the movie was going to try and skate by with great effects but a thin story, but luckily it didn't. Yes, it is a blockbuster, but it does retain the imaginatively and wit of the original Men in Black. The movie has a lot of the tone that the original MIB films had, and some things haven't changed, and a lot of things have. For example, the character Zed has recently died, and female Agent O has taken his place. Even Danny Elfman's music is a bit different, although it does retain the main themes of the series. The special effects are better than ever, and we even have a few new things of technology, such as interesting and awesome single-wheeled vehicles (as seen in the still above), and (obviously) the time travel technology. And best of all are the characters and their relationships and interaction, which is where the real magic, and humor, of the movie is. In his journey in this movie, J meets the younger K of 1969 (played by Josh Brolin). Another character that I like is Griff, an alien who is able to see 4-dimensionally, and can see the many possible timelines that the future can follow. We even have a brief scene at the end of the film that adds a new and somewhat emotional dimension to the relationship of J and K, but I won't spoil it.
Like I said in my review of The Avengers, I'm now going to the theater more often. I started of my summer with The Avengers, and now I've seen my second film for this summer. Men in Black III does have a few flaws, but they're not worth discussing, and they really didn't bother me. The 106 running length of the movie pretty much flew by. The film is not great or anything (it's definitely only a three-star film, in my opinion), it's only okay, but it's pretty entertaining. Performances are good, and the actors really bring out their characters. Danny Elfman's music score is good. And, like I said before, the special effects are great, and they contribute effectively to the story and the film overall. The technology in the film is nice, and the aliens and monsters, especially the villain, were well designed and excellently goofy and bizarre, like they're supposed to be. And yes the film is a comedy, and it lives up to that name - the humor is good and smart. As for the time travel, it's not completely accurate, but that's typical in this movie, and it can be forgiven because of it's wit and likable characters, among other things. This sequel is unnecessary, yes, and it could have been disappointing, but luckily it wasn't.
It may sound like I loved the movie, but I didn't. I just though it was okay. But still, it's funny, goofy, entertaining, witty, and, in my opinion, just as good as the first Men in Black movie. I'm glad I saw it in the theater.
My Rating: *** (out of ****)
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