A worthy film in the franchise

Rating: 8/10 (27 September 2012)

The first Men in Black was mostly a comedy. It set up the stage, presented the actors and managed to do a little extra on the side, but it was a proof of concept mostly, with many a laugh and lots of goofiness. The second movie had the setup, but it wasn't nearly as funny or active; it basically flopped.
The third movie saves the day. It solves the second movie by ignoring it completely and using the same story in a better way: Agent J gets to save K again. The film also ties things up nicely and puts the original film in perspective. The villain acts a bit goofy, but is very well designed and positively scary. Brolin does a great agent K. It seemed Tommy Lee Jones had to be heavily made up in order to appear remotely interesting and his role was minimal. Even better are the introductions of interesting people in the cast: Emma Thompson as a romantic interest of K's, Jemaine Clement of Flight and the Conchords fame as the bad alien (the humans are not dead yet, Jemaine!) and lovely Alice Eve in a too tiny a role as young Agent O (and may I say what a perfect operative nickname they found for her).
Bottom line: some people did not like it. I have no idea why. Probably it had to do with expectations that were set up 10 years ago and then took lives of their own. The script is subtle, but effective, the acting is good, the 1969 atmosphere is not really accurate, but it doesn't matter so much and there is real humour, not just weird aliens doing silly things. Will Smith was great in his first role in about 4 years. All in all, I liked the film.