Review: Men in Black III

Men in Black III

Director Rupert Sanders Screenwriters Etan Cohen, Lowell Cunningham Cast Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Emma Thompson

Let’s pretend the less than adequate direct sequel to Men in Black never happened. With that logic, we can say it took almost 15 years for this new entry to hit the screens after the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones alien-fighting duo saved the world all the way back in 1997. So who remembers what this franchise is really about? As the title gives it away, Smith and Jones are men in black suits, a part of a top-secret government organisation that hunts down harmful extraterrestrial life forms. They have laser guns, fast cars, and all sorts of gadgets that accompany them on their missions. It’s also been far too long since we’ve seen Smith on the big screen. He’s been keeping himself busy with film-producing work, but time actually spent on screen has been absolute zero for past four years or so.

And what a welcome back to form this turns out to be. Which is odd, since we see so little of the series-defining and utterly necessary Jones who even in his brief outing delivers the laughs with his comically wise words and still, emotionless face, a quality Smith’s Agent J has always had trouble adjusting to. The reason for Jones’ shortage is because of an evil alien called Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) who escapes from a maximum-security prison on the Moon. Out to exact revenge on Agent K (Jones) who arrested him in the first place, Boris decides to rewrite history, jump into the past, and permanently wipe K out. It takes a while for J to understand and accept that within a single day no-one knows or remembers who K is. To fix this complex situation he himself travels back into 1969 to make sure K stays alive to save the world once more.

The trouble with having time travel in films is that it can seriously get out of hand. But apart from a lazy mishap in the film’s climax, the adventurous idea stays well on track and provides a secure and fun base for the film to build itself around. So J travels to the 60s, when Americans were less than kind to people of his race. He drives a fancy car, wears his black suit, and suddenly the police come around thinking that he stole these. Various culture shocks aside, J is even more stunned to meet the young K, played by Josh Brolin.

Brolin is the reason why this film works so well. Men in Black was never only about the disgusting looking aliens. It was mainly concerned with tip-top banterous chemistry Smith and Jones, a highly unlikely pairing, shared. The cocky, mouthy Smith teamed with the serious, quiet Jones always provided the laughs. With Jones gone, the shoes to fill must have been absolutely enormous, and to perfectly master Jones’ mannerisms and have an equally dynamic spark with Smith is Brolin. It helps that Brolin and Jones look rather similar. But what Brolin achieves goes so far beyond superficial looks. He nails the accent, the facial expressions, and with them creates a fascinating younger version of K.

With Flight of the Conchords’ Clement in an almost unrecognisable form as the grumpy Boris, the villain looks and sounds deadly enough to warrant our attention. His size, brute force and dialogue seem deliberately absurd, as is the CGI used to portray every single aspect of his body with repulsive alien-like features. With this type of simple, straightforward and completely comprehensible villain, the threats he makes are more than convincing, and as we see a glimpse of what he is planning for Earth in which giant squid-like alien vessels take over everything, it’s easy to see this guy doesn’t make empty threats he cannot deliver.

Despite the determination of our villain, the action remains relatively calm throughout and there are no stand-out, complex sequences of heavy gun-fire. The futuristic rides and silver firearms are all there, but the episodic, police procedural type of pacing adds no creativity or originality to the duo’s chase for Boris. The ambitious final action sequence that combines the real-life account of America’s first rocket launch into space as well as the fictitious fight against aliens carried out by J and K is well integrated and the aforementioned huge misstep that conveniently but not logically sums everything up is the only aspect that threatens to ruin a perfectly well set-up conclusion.

Surprisingly, this third installment ends with heart, and an unexpectedly touching revelation that gives an enriching background story to both J and K in a short period of time that pulls off the emotional punch without ever going overboard or dragging out the drama; again, a bold, unconventional addition to a film franchise with a set of rules that had already worked. With just enough tweaks but leaving a lot of the good material intact, Men in Black III is certainly a sci-fi adventure to embark on, something that shows there is no slowing down The Fresh Prince no matter after how many years of absence, and that with the right casting choices, a sudden replacement is not always a disaster.