MiB No Longer MiA

The Men in Back are black (Wait...) and in full swing for Round 3. The first Men in Black film is a movie that I remember watching many times as a child so I have strong ties to the series. I had a few doubts going into this movie mainly due to my connection to the first movie, the quality of the second, and the time span between the movies. (15 years) But none of this mattered because all these doubts were put down early and I was able to get involved and just enjoy the film.


The first part I want to hit on is the story. I really don't expect much going into a MiB movie plot wise. Usually, an alien needs something to destroy the world and they have to go through K (Incredibly grumpy Tommy Lee Jones)  and J (Will Smith) to get it, investigations and memory wipes ensue, and eventually our boys in black nab the bad guys...aliens. This is not one of those stories. The first unique part about it is that the main antagonist, Boris the Animal, an alien with goggles for eyes and a creepy spider thing living in his hand isn't after the earth, he has a personal vendetta against Agent K. By making the villain intentions personal, it makes the overall conflict more personal to the viewer. The other great thing about is putting our protagonist in a uncomfortable situation, that's a reason that the first film was so entertaining. In the original J is thrust into a world full of intergalactic beings, in the third he's thrust into a world that has just been thrust into a world of intergalactic beings. It brings a freshness that the second film was lacking. The lack of Michael Jackson helped too...

I guess he didn't get enough alien joke...

The next part that strengthened the movie was all the actors performances. Needless to say, Josh Brolin gives the 

performance of a lifetime as Young Agent K. Its brilliant 
because he is Agent K, but before Agent K became so surly, and, well, old. He has fun with the role and makes K a womanizing guy who really enjoys other people, and you get to see why K is the way that he is. Will Smith is great as usual, the only thing he lacked was a rap song to play during the credits. (Yes, I was actually disappointed by that.) Jemaine Clement, of Flight of the Conchords fame, plays the main antagonist Boris. He is surprisingly not a comedic character at all, he maybe has one funny scene. It was really interesting to see Clement out of his usually element.  The best character and actor in the movie came out of a new character named, Griffin, a 5th dimensional alien who can see every thing going on in every timeline at the same time, sort of like a Time Lord. 

"Every timeline, you say?"

He gives the most beautiful delivery, every line is spoken with the wonder and enjoyment of a kid in an incredible yet unfamiliar place, it really is spectacular.








The time travel was handled brilliantly. Usually in a film that  hasn't used time travel before, they find a way to muck the time stream up and never address how it was repaired. This is not so in MiB3. The movie gets wrapped up really well, and the time stream is in tack. The continuity fits flawlessly with the first movie, which was made 15 years ago, I find that seriously impressive. Some movies make sequels a year later with no time travel and they still can't keep the continuity between the series. 


There were only two things that I really had a problem with in the film. The first is really minor but it still was bothersome. In the first movie they make K seem like he's still in love with his wife from his previous life pre-MiB. In the second movie, his wife is written out and its revealed that he was in love with a princess from another planet. In this movie its shown that he and Agent O (The Beautiful Emma Thompson/Alice Eve) had at least a fling. The character established in the first film does not seem like one that would jump from woman to woman so frequently, his younger more Josh Brolin-y self, maybe, but not the aged Tommy Lee Agent K. That is a really minor thing but can we not just establish a love interest for these characters and leave them? Not one female lea has lasted more than one movie, and that is really odd to me.

The other thing I disliked is a pretty major writing thing that could have been presented better in all three movies. Spoilers for all 3 movies ahead, consider yourself warned. In the first movie everyone is after a galaxy on Orion's Belt which turns out to be in a jewel on a cat's collar. In MiB2 they're looking for "The Light of (Some Alien Planet)" which is thought to be on a jewel on a necklace when really thats just a sign to were the Light is. Still jewelry holding the key to the main plot of the movie. Now, in the third Agent J and K have to find the ArcNet which is a fields that protect Earth from alien invasions. This is kept inside of a pocket watch or locket or something. I mean really? We HAD to store it in some kind of jewelry?

That's what I call original writing!

Overall, it was a really fun time. You get some good alien busting, some good laughs, and maybe a few tears. It went above and beyond what I expected from any Men in Black movie ever, and visits places that I never would have imagined. I though it had some really clever moments, some incredible character development, and impressive action sequences. I'd give it a 8/10, definitely my favorite of the series.