With numerous summer blockbusters
and critical accolades under his belt, there are few Hollywood juggernauts as
reliable as Will Smith, but his past success wasn’t enough to calm my
skepticism concerning Men in Black 3. Now, while the original Men in Black remains one of my favorite science fiction films and I
was a huge fan of the spinoff cartoon series, I consider Men in Black II to not only be one of the worst sequels ever made,
but also one of my most personally reviled films. Needless to say, my faith in the franchise
had hit rock-bottom, so I certainly didn’t see any logic in revisiting a
cinematic universe that hasn’t been at the forefront of popular culture for
nearly a decade. The 3D-format seemed
little more than a necessary cash-grab for Sony Pictures, while the time-travel
angle of the narrative always comes across as an overly-recycled plot point,
but I do have to admit to being intrigued over the fact that Tommy Lee Jones
and Josh Brolin would be portraying the same character. Critical reviews were strong, but I still
walked into the theater with drastically-low expectations…it couldn’t get any
worse, could it?
Overall
Recommendation: Medium
Energetic, creative, and thoroughly
entertaining, Men in Black 3 succeeds
in every element of film-making in which Men
in Black II failed, representing the template that the franchise should
have followed from the beginning. While
the chemistry between Smith and Jones is a welcome return for fans of the
series, the strongest element of this sequel is the performance of Josh Brolin
as the younger Agent K, in that he adopts Jones’ speaking style and mannerisms
so strongly that the cinematic resemblance between actors is downright
spooky. Add-in the impressive special
effects, creative alien character designs, and the thoroughly threatening
performance of Jermaine Clement as the villain, and there is plenty to enjoy in
MIB 3. However, once the novelty of a return to the
familiar wears-off, some weaknesses do manifest; the story, though bold, gets a
little too deep and complicated for its own good, generating a few too many
questions for a supposedly-fun summer blockbuster. If you are a fan of the franchise, then MIB 3 is definitely worth seeing, but otherwise,
there is little added to the overall story and nothing engaging or fascinating
that truly justifies the necessity of this sequel.
