Welcome everyone to the end of my series of reviews for the Men In Black franchise. I have already expressed how much of fan I am of the first one, and how much I am not a fan of the second one, in my first two reviews, so if you want you can check those out first before reading this post, please do so. But now we are going to talk about what I thought about the final entry in the J and K story, which went through a very troubled production, and did not release until a decade after Men In Black. So the fact that it ended up this good, is pretty astounding.
We start off with an opening scene, which introduces the villain of the film, Boris the Animal, escaping a maximum security prison on the Moon. It is later revealed that he has a vendetta against Agent K for destroying his right arm, and stopping a Boglodite invasion from invading the Earth by setting up the arcnet in 1969. Meanwhile on Earth though, Agent J, and K are still doing their job as MIB agents keeping the secret of aliens living among us. However after the two encounter Boris on a mission, J starts getting a little tired of the secrets K has been keeping from him, and they start to grow more apart as a team. But all of sudden J finds himself in another timeline when Boris goes back in time, and kills K which means the arcnet never got deployed, and so the Boglodites can invade Earth. In order to stop this, J must go back in time to July 16, 1969 to stop, and kill Boris so K can put the arcnet in the Apollo 11 rocket. Things get a little complicated though when J runs into a younger K, and after some convincing, they decide to work together in order to save the future, and maybe learn a little about K’s past in the process.
One if my biggest problems with Men In Black II was that it did not do much to change the formula up, and was basically a lesser version of the first movie. While this third installment does maintain the same tone, and basic plot of the other two movies (J, and K must protect an important device from an evil alien), it actually bothers to change things up, and is definitely a more interesting endeavor overall. The time-travel element is something that is new to the series, and that does allow us to visit a different setting in the 1960s, and thus make the film stand out from the other installments. That element also lets us get to learn more about K, and his past, and it provides him with some good character development. Speaking of development, that also applies to J, and K’s relationship, and how some new complications arise, when J starts to feel like he doesn’t get much respect from his partner, which is looked into here much more than in Men In Black II where their relationship pretty much a less developed version of the first. Another thing I really appreciate is how it maintains the small scale of the franchise that always makes it stand out from the big blockbusters, and creative world-building with some brand new alien species being introduced, and a look into how MIB was back then. The humor is once again a big highlight, as I was laughing consistently throughout at the jokes, even if not all of them landed as well as others did, and I would say that this is probably the most emotional of the 3 with a couple of heartwarming moments that left a pretty big emotional punch, particularly in how the film concludes which is actually pretty surprising, heartwarming, and is a satisfying ending to the J, and K’s story.
I would say, however that one of my biggest problems with this threequel is actually one of the same ones I had with the second film and that is the overuse of CGI. For a film that reportedly cost $220 million, it doesn’t look like they spend too much money improving on those effects. There are many times where the CGI is pretty wonky (when J time jumps is where it is most apparent), and when the green screen backdrops are very noticeable. Thankfully the film makes up for its admittedly weak CGI, with some very nice production values, something these films always have. The sets are well made, and captures the film’s 1960s setting extremely well, from the old fashioned MIB headquarters to the colorful amusement park locale of Coney Island. The costumes, props, and make-up are just as good capturing the setting, and I have to give huge shout-outs Rick Baker who once again makes some very convincing aliens with his make-up skills, with Boris the Animal, who is very convincing. There is also some fun alien action, that are directed well enough with my favorite being the bike chase at night, and Danny Elfman’s score is back, and is just as awesome as it was in the previous films.
Now, one thing I have heard a lot of people hating on in this movie is Will Smith’s performance, even though I don’t really understand why? I found him to be just as charming, and funny as he was in the previous films, and he handles the emotional scenes here just as well. His interactions with Tommy Lee Jones are entertaining even if the latter isn’t really in the movie that much, though he still has some good scenes. But the standout in the cast is far, and away Josh Brolin as a young Agent K. Not only is he perfect in the role capturing that dead pan humor so well, but he is different enough from Jones to make the role his own (which can be really hard sometimes). The new cast in general is pretty great as they all make for some fun new additions to the franchise. Emma Thompson’s Agent O, replaces Rip Torn’s Zed as the head of the MIB organization who has a history with Agent K, and she does a very good job as the authoritative person in charge, even if her past self played by Alice Eve doesn’t get much to do. I also really enjoyed Michael Stuhlbarg as griffin, an alien with clairvoyant abilities whom people like to call a “space unicorn”, as he is one of the more interesting characters thanks to his cool powers (that can be a bit of a pain in the butt sometimes), and he gets some of the funniest moments in the film. Jemaine Clements is a lot of fun as Boris the Animal who is a huge improvement over Serleena from the last film, since he actually has a personality, and is fun to watch, even if he feels more like a plot device that exists to move the story along. Other supporting players like Mike Coulter as a military colonel who help J, and k out, Michael Chernus as an electronics store clerk in possession of time traveling technology, and Bill Hader as Andy Warhol (or Agent W.) make the most of what they can with their limited screen-time, and manage to leave an impression.
What a nice surprise this film turned out to be right? Its not every day that a film ends up being this good even with an insane amount of behind the scenes conflict. Men In Black 3 is huge improvement over two, and it works very well as a finale to this irritation of MIB agents. While it may not match the greatness of that original film it still is a fun ride, with all of the things that made me love this franchise, and even adds some things to the formula to make things interesting, and a little bit different. Now that we have taken a look at the original Smith, and Jones trilogy, lets see what Chris Hemsworth, and Tessa Thompson bring to the table when they don the suits, and gadgets.
Rating: B+
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