Entertaining summer movie

Rating: 8/10 (9 June 2012)

This is a perfect summer movie, wouldn't you say? It's got aliens (lots of aliens), time travel, futuristic technology, great special effects and 3D, a fast pace, a wisecracking Will Smith, cool chase scenes and wild shoot-outs.
For those of us older than 14, it's a well written, well acted film with a few good characters. Michael Stuhlberg plays an interesting character who can see "fifth dimensionally". The villain played by Jemaine Clement (Boris the Animal) is hilarious and frightening at the same time.
The movie lacks some of the more annoying, childish aspects of MIB II. MIB has always been a buddy-movie franchise, but in this version this aspect comes to the foreground. This movie is actually about a relationship, in spite of it all. Josh Brolin is quite good. The movie is very much focused on Will Smith. This movie is perfect for him.
Much of the movie is staged in NYC in 1969 so some of the background and humour relate to that. The alert viewer is rewarded with allusions and references of all kinds, including to MIB I and MIB II. The movie is richly planted with these Easter eggs. (I think the director more or less assumes you've seen the first two movies.)