Men In Black 3

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 25th May, 2012
Time : 103 minutes
Director : Barry Sonnenfeld; Writers : Etan Cohen, (based on the Malibu comic by Lowell Cunningham); Music : Danny Elfman
Starring : Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Penant, Emma Thompson, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mike Colter, Nicole Scherzinger

It’s a nice story, mixing time travel with our friendly neighbourhood agents & exotic aliens, and has a neat emotional twist at the end. But it isn’t as cool or as much fun as the previous editions.

We have a snarling alien (Jemaine), imprisoned for over 40 years, seeking revenge from the man who shot off his arm & took him prisoner. We have a time travel machine that requires jumping from great heights. We have Agent O (Emma) taking over as head of the agency. We have a Griffin (Michael), who can co-exist in several dimensions at once. We have J, who despite being Senior Agent, wants a pay raise. And we have an ageing, weary K, who seems to have some secrets weighing heavily on his shoulders

The time travel is quite an interesting aspect, allows us to get a scenery change from Manhattan as we know it. Also, without giving too much away, there are certain intriguing aspects of the time travel shown, certain questions raised which require reflection. The logic (if there is such a thing in a film about a government agency dealing with aliens) doesn’t hold all the way through though, making you wonder ‘why?’ in certain places.

The villain is quite boring, we don’t get to see or know too much about him, his powers or what makes him fearsome. Tommy Lee Jones looks old & Will Smith looks a bit jaded, unable to bring as much energy as he did. Even the jokes are fewer and more flat.

This one is quite different from previous MIBs. The first was quite physical (lots of fight sequences, chases) and conceptual. The second took the story telling and the humour up a notch. This one focuses too much on the plot (which is interesting) but misses out on both, the physical aspects and even the humour. Its interesting but not quite there.