Review of Men in Black 3 (2012) by Moviemastereddy — 03 Apr 2016

Never ask a question you don't want to know the answer to, we're told a couple of times in "Men in Black III.".

It sounds like good advice, yet I can't help myself. I have to ask: Why did they make this movie? The original, released in 1997, was a terrifically fun sci-fi comedy, with the laconic Tommy Lee Jones and the ebullient Will Smith teaming as agents of a secret organization that keeps Earth safe from bad aliens (and ensures the good ones stay safe, as well). The confirmation that your weird grade-school teacher was from another planet alone made it worthwhile.

The 2002 sequel ... not so much. So 10 years later, was there a clamor for a third installment? If there was, I missed it.

The good news is that it's better than the second "Men in Black." The bad news is: not all that much. There are a couple of clever ideas, a few funny moments, a wealth of computer-generated special effects. But it's hollow at its core, and the asides have lost some of their spark. So Lady Gaga is an alien living on Earth?

Duh.

Agent J (Smith) and Agent K (Jones) are still partners, still cleaning up alien messes, still wiping witnesses' memories clean so that the general population remains unaware of what's really going on. But J is growing tired of K's silent act. A staleness has set in, which seems like a dangerous path for director Barry Sonnenfeld to travel, given the context.

Bigger trouble is brewing. On a prison whose security is so maximum it's located on the moon, Boris the Animal (Jermaine Clement from "Flight of the Conchords," unrecognizable) escapes, in about as dumb a way as possible. He is a rather disgusting creature -- a deadly little spiderlike thing lives inside his hand, and Boris shoots what seems to be an inexhaustible supply of dartlike weapons out of his hand, as well (crowded in there). Boris has a score to settle with K, who put him away 40 years ago and shot off his arm.

Boris changes all that, going back in time and killing the young K in 1969. Only J realizes this at first, but eventually he convinces his new boss, O (Emma Thompson, of all people), that something is amiss. (A craving for chocolate milk is key, which tells you the level of sophistication at work here.) So J has to travel back in time to the day before, to prevent Boris from killing K, because if he doesn't, an alien invasion, which has already begun will wipe out ... oh forget it. You get the idea. It's all an excuse to send J back to the '60s to set up the film's best joke -- Josh Brolin playing the young Agent K.

Brolin nails it. It's not just mimicry; his Agent K, while still stone-faced and withdrawn, is a little happier than the later model, and it intrigues J. What happened to you to change you, he asks several times? To which K replies, good naturedly, "I don't know. It hasn't happened yet.".

Aside from that joke, Sonnenfeld also uses the premise to place the modern J in the '60s and, presumably, laugh at the results. A factory turns out to be THE Factory, and Andy Warhol (Bill Hader) comes in for the MiB treatment (though not in ways you would expect). Michael Stuhlbarg is sweetly charming as an alien who can not only see the future, but all possible versions of it. ("It's a pain in the ass," he says of the gift.).

Smith and Brolin have a decent chemistry, and the final showdown between the agents and Boris, while a little reckless and all over the place, scores some points for incorporating the launch of Apollo 11. There is also an attempt at some emotional payoff, though it throws the whole space-time continuum thing into question (I think; that stuff is always so hard to follow).

"Men in Black III" isn't bad, certainly not as bad as it might have been. But it's not exactly good, either. Mostly, it's something else: unnecessary.