A Rare Occasion in Which the Three-quel Surpasses the Original.

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2012)

Yes, the title is a true statement; everything that was good about the original "Men In Black" is done better in "Men In Black 3", which is quite a surprise, considering that the third movie in a franchise is usually the weakest. Now, I've never been the biggest MIB fan; I enjoyed the first movie for what it was: a flawed, but nonetheless, entertaining sic-fi comedy. The second, although I don't hate it, failed to live up to the bar that was set so high by its predecessor.
And now we have the third, and best, installment. First, the bad things. I found the whole time travel plot, although it does have its fun moments, a bit too clumsily handled. It seems a bit too clunky and interfered too much with the laws of space-time-continuum that have been set by previous movies.
The first twenty minutes of the movie seems too reminiscent of what made the second movie a flop. It's self indulgent, full of lame one-liners, and it sort of prevented me from enjoying myself. I feared I just paid to watch another bad MIB movie.
But after Tommy Lee Jone's Agent K is erased from time, the movie really steps it up. First of all, the villain is really good. The villains from the first two movies were...well, I don't remember. So I know a villain lacks charisma when I can't remember a single thing about him/her. The villain from this one is a lot of fun. He looks bit like Randy Savage and sounds like Tim Curry. He's got some good one-liners and a couple of cool fight scenes with the heroes.
While we're on the subject, the action in this one is a lot better. This is sort of a weird thing to point out, but the first two MIB movies are ugly movies. They look gross and dirty, which I think is what the filmmakers are going for. But there's so much grime and muck that the audience can take, so it's nice to see a cleaner MIB movie.
No doubt you've heard how awesome Josh Brolin is as young Agent K. His control and surly attitude capture exactly what Tommy Lee Jones brought to the table, but there's hints of emotion to him as well. "Something hasn't happened to him yet", so Brolin's allowed to show some happiness with Agent K's former life.
Final verdict: With the exception of the first twenty minutes, it seems like the filmmakers were able to go back and get rid of all of the snarky stupidity of the second movie. They've found their roots with the first movie and managed to make an even better movie. It's a good summer action movie, plain and simple.