Ideal for those with low expectations

Rating: 4/10 (17 June 2012)

It had to be done. There was an empty evening, a slot to fill in the blog and the potential of a fun, innovative film.
The short version is that Men in Black III is better than the second outing but doesn't hit the originality or the highs of the first. The biggest issue is there just isn't anything terribly new on offer. There are no great surprises, no universes hiding in a locker, no shock revelations of politicians or celebrities hailing from worlds on the other side of our imaginations. Yes, there are hints and mentions but they feel like ticks on a checklist. So much of Men in Black III does.
Will Smith is on good form, maintains his perpetually young appearance, gives the cheeky chappy performance we've come to expect and (mostly) accept and carries the film without inspiring us; Tommy Lee Jones is predictably miserable/stoical/deadpan – delete as you see fit; Barry Sonnenfield returns to direct using the same map and instructions; Danny Elfman revisits the series with his third score in typical, entertaining but, in this instance, not overly inspiring fashion.
The surprises come, firstly and in a minor way, from Emma Thompson, who fills the gap left by Rip Torn's absent Zed as Agent O. She plays a familiar mummsy-with-a-slight-edge role but with the expected level of humour and sincerity we've come to expect. She's not going to increase her Oscar haul (two and counting) with this but it's a performance of the expected quality. The surprise is simply that she's in Men in Black III at all.
More surprising is Josh Brolin's uncannily accurate portrayal of the younger Agent K. His voice, mannerisms and miserable/stoical/deadpan – delete as you see fit – performance is remarkably close to that of Tommy Lee Jones. It's not easy playing a younger version of a familiar character; just ask Ewan McGregor, although Brolin has the advantage of playing a part that is nowhere near as beloved and iconic as Obi-Wan Kenobi.
I'm far less happy with Jermaine Clement's (he of The Flight of the Conchords fame) waltz through the film as Boris The Animal. It's not so much a case of scenery-chewing as Brian Blessed on crack and chomping everything in sight. For a while it's entertaining and one is left to marvel at how he manages to say anything at all with those teeth filling two thirds of his mouth, but it very quickly becomes tedious as he attempts to roar in a slightly different way.
It's entertaining, it'll thrill the children with low expectations and the drunks with depleted brain cells but, actually, I think I'll give Wild, Wild West another shot before I sit through Men in Black III again. At least it boasts the former Mrs Thompson, Kenneth Branagh.
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