Review: 'Men in Black 3'

Columbia Pictures

After a ten year hiatus, the Men in Black franchise is back with its third installment Men in Black 3. This time around Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement) has escaped from a prison that is located on the moon where he has spent over forty years of his life.  The first thing on his agenda is to rewrite history to where he never spent any time in prison. How does he do this? Through time travel of course. In order to change the past forty or so years, he has a plan to go back in time and kill the person that put him away, a younger, 1969 version of Agent K (Josh Brolin). After Agent J (Will Smith), living in a world where Agent K has been dead since 1969, is informed of what happened between Boris the Animal and Agent K, he must also go back in time to spoil Boris’ plan and save Agent K’s life.

  

The time traveling plot adds a fascinating element to not just the film’s plot but also background information of Agent K and Agent J’s relationship. Unfortunately, Men in Black 3 takes a significant amount of time to get to this point due to a weak script. As I was watching this film, I felt as if I watching an average sitcom, because the dialogue was very slow developing and basic with really nothing standing out as valuable comedic writing. The screenplay of Men in Black 3 lacks the high level of energy found in the first two films, and it can’t meet the level needed for both the characters and the story to work.

Will Smith is the biggest victim of this shortage of energy. Smith is given virtually no lines to work with and quickly becomes a forgettable element of the film. More than any other character, Smith’s Agent J is built on high energy and the dialogue to match it. With jokes that seem very dated and often miss, this character does not have the same effect that he has in the past.                                  

With that said, Men in Black 3 is not a total loss. Josh Brolin is spot on as the young Agent K, stealing each scene he appears in. Tommy Lee Jones is easily seen pouring through in Brolin’s performance, not just nailing the dialect but also in mimicking the facial and nonverbal expressions of Jones. Brolin is able to bring the same subtle, drawn out approach to the character that Jones does, working to the films advantage.                                           

As I previously said, Men in Black 3 has trouble taking flight as a comedy but delivers a satisfying ending that helps cover up a disappointing film up to this point to end on a high note. Assuming that this is the final Men in Black film, this ending is a fitting wrap up to a unique, but equally entertaining franchise.  

Grade: C+