Here come the Men In Black. See, that song is stuck in your head now isn’t it? The original Men In Black was a genuine slice of greatness. I...
Here come the Men In Black. See, that song is stuck in your head now isn’t it? The original Men In Black was a genuine slice of greatness. It was funny, had brilliant characters and wonderful visual effects. The follow up movie was a bit all over the place, even though Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones had that wonderful chemistry. And now, a hundred years on (it feels like it) the band are back together, and this time Josh Brolin is tagging along in Men In Black 3.
With a storyline that almost reeks of “just for the sake of getting anything on the big screen”, Men In Black 3 could be positioned to be as poor as the sequel. But is it?
Agent J (Will Smith) travels back in time to stop Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) getting murdered and subsequently saving the world from complete and utter destruction from Boris The Animal. That’s it, thats what they came up with since 2002. As idiotic as it sounds, when the movie gets back to the 1960’s (which it does quickly enough) things ain’t half bad. Especially Josh Brolin. His impersonation of Tommy Lee Jones is simply brilliant and it works to some degree against Will Smith on screen.One of the original attractions of the last two movies was the chemistry between Smith and Jones. And as great as Brolin is, it’s seems a travesty that there isn’t as much of this chemistry here. At this point in his career Will Smith just plays Will Smith and as usual is charming and likeable. Tommy Lee Jones on the other hand is in the movie for a very short period of time, mainly beginning and end. And what he does is adequate, he didn’t exactly break a sweat here.
And it’s the end of the movie, or certainly the latter half where things actually work for Men In Black 3. And yes the story is idiotic, but the actual last 20 minutes had me all emotional as it certainly hammers home more than the obvious storyline. And even though its predictable in what happens, its not that predictable.
At 103 minutes, Men In Black 3 rollicks along at a decent pace coupled up with an assortment of characters which are quite specific to their eras. Visually the movie is a sight for the eyes, and while some of the effects are a little dodgy, generally they look quite well, especially the Cape Canaveral sequence.
Overall, Men In Black 3 is not the weakest of the bunch, and it has lost some of its charm, but it is better than the sequel, granted not by much. A poor storyline doesn’t help, but it is worth trudging through especially for the last 20 odd or so minutes which are genuinely touching. You could watch a lot worse! No neuralizer required.
