Men In Black 3 film review

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(Rating: PG, 106 mins) Written by Zen Terrelonge

Starring – Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement.

The good guys dress in black, remember that, just in case you’re ever face to face and make contact.

Their job? To protect the earth from the scum of the universe, armed with fancy silver guns that can reduce the enemy to space dust in a sidewards blink of an eye.

The first film was released in 1997, back before Smith exploded into a global superstar, while a follow up was released a few years later, one that wasn’t too favourable critically, despite an impressive box office return.

And of course, what with the current trend of sequels, prequels and remakes, Sony has seen fit to launch Men In Black 3.

Both Smith and Jones return as agents J and K, with the former still impatient, restless, and full of wisecracks, while the latter is still craggy and even surlier, though J makes a point of highlighting that he isn’t getting any younger either.

The plot centres around time travel, with K missing from the present, murdered some 40 years ago by villainous extraterrestrial, Boris the Animal (Clement), J is forced to go back to 1969 as he remains the only one that can remember his partner.

This opens the door to retro-looking aliens and quirky celebrities including Andy Warhol, which provides a lot of fun, as well as racial profiling in a world that wasn’t quite so accepting of suited black gentleman, like J.

Most interestingly of all, is new entrant to the franchise, Josh Brolin, who plays the young agent K. It’s a move which could have gone horribly wrong, but it paid off with dividends, as Brolin captures Jones’ southern drawl brilliantly and in a real testament to Brolin’s skill, you also forget that Jones isn’t on-screen in a much less-wrinkled body.

Brolin also gets the opportunity to inject a new layer to the brick wall that is K too, with the young version yet to experience just what it is that turns his future self into such a misery, he comes across as somewhat upbeat.

I said somewhat.

I wasn’t too keen on the idea of time travel when I heard about it, but it worked and ties up loose ends, ones which the audience wouldn’t have been aware were there.

Of course, it’s great to see Smith back where he belongs, following a five year absence from cinemas, though I’m not sure there was any need for the cameo appearance from Nicole Scherzinger in the film.

Hopefully she’ll stick to prancing around on stage and cheering on on/off boyfriend Lewis Hamilton at future F1 meets.

7/10

Men In Black 3 is in cinemas now.