Review: Men In Black 3

Premise

In standard Buddy Cop movie fashion, after fourteen years of working together, J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are, for want of a better phrase, in a rut. K is grumpy(er) and J is annoying(er). All of this changes, of course, when alien super-criminal, Boris The Animal (Jemaine Clement), escapes from his prison on the moon, seeking revenge on K for shooting off his left arm. To carry out his revenge, Boris travels back to before this event took place and kills K, erasing him from the timeline we all know and put up with. J, for reasons that aren't clear to begin with, is the only person who remembers the truth, and as such, must travel back in time to help young K (Josh Brolin) defeat two Boris The Animal's, in order to prevent an invasion in the present day by Boris' alien race of jerks.

Is that clear? I feel like it's not clear. Why are time travel movies so complicated to explain?

The Good

Let's be positive for a moment. To some extent, I did enjoy this film. Josh Brolin is pretty damn good as a younger version of K. The key element here is that it's believable. There are numerous films involving younger and older versions of characters and it always comes across as obvious and rather embarrassing. Thankfully, that's not the case with Men In Black 3. His performance is definitely the saving grace for this picture. I'm was also impressed by Jemaine Clements performance as Boris. Granted, it's not a memorable villain such as Edgar The Bug from the original film, but he plays it just right. A snarling beast with an almost distinguished English accent. It works nicely, giving the movie a villain that is both amusing and threatening at the same time.

Say what you will about Will Smith, but I just find him entertaining to watch. I'm not saying he adds anything new to this film that we haven't already seen, but it's hard to find him unlikeable as an actor and a character. Hell, he slapped a reporter last week and I still think he's great. When I slap reporters, I get arrested. In terms of his performance, it's plain old J from the first two films.

It should be noted, of course, that the visuals following J's time travel to 1969, are thoroughly pleasing. The MIB headquarters scene genuinely brought a smile to my face. Women walk around in short dresses (it's the 60's, no equality there I'm afraid), the aliens are all delightfully reminiscent of Star Trek creatures, there are people walking around in those daft spacesuits (you know, the ones with the fishbowl helmets?) and the typical 60's sci-fi interpretations of future or alien technology. This attention to detail is excellent, serving as a well-meaning nod to the era's obsession with aliens and space.

The Bad

The story. It's lackluster. It doesn't seem to have much flow to begin with, I'm afraid. Maybe time travel is your thing, that's cool, but thrown in with the mixed genre we have already (Buddy Cop movie meets Sci-fi Movie), it all feels a bit over-the-top and not in a good way. As I said before, I like Boris as a character, but as the villain of the piece, there was rarely any real threat. Sure, they talk about how he's travelled back in time to off a main character, but we barely see him. He pops up now and then to cause trouble, but there's not the same amount of screen time that Edgar, or even Selena from MIB2 had. As such, the character is under-used and never really becomes what, I assume, the director intended him to become.

Where the hell is Tommy Lee Jones? Seriously? I get that he's there because he's one of the main characters in the first two, but if you're going to give someone the "name-on-the-poster" treatment, at least have them in the film for more than ten minutes. Actually, on second thoughts, don't include him at all next time. It's a great character, and he's a great actor, but he just doesn't look like he wants to be there at all this time around. And no, it's not coming across like it's his character, it's coming across like he's having a miserable time on set, like he knows this is going to be panned by critics or something.

I also think the ending was overly schmaltzy, but hey, I'm not going to spoil it.

The Ugly

I'm putting in a vote; Jemaine Clement should look like this for Flight Of The Conchords

For those who skipped to the end...

It's an entertaining movie, with great performances from certain members of the cast, but it's unfortunately let down by a tediously messy story.

7/10