How many weekends does it take to displace “The Avengers” from the box-office top spot? It takes three apparently. It would seem that everyone has now seen Marvels mightiest superheroes defend the world enough times and are actively seeking something (maybe anything) else. Could “Men in Black 3” have won its weekend due to any real anticipation or public interest? Sure people like Will Smith, but “MIB” is a largely forgotten franchise, and director Barry Sonnenfeld really hasn’t had a memorable hit since the first installment back in 1997. The following sequel in 2002 did well enough commercially, but was largely seen as a disappointment. Ever since, Sonnenfeld has been slumming around in the worlds of television production and middling comedies like “RV” and “Big Trouble”. Regardless, here we are in 2012 and we have yet another galaxy defending crusade, led by the unlikely duo of Will Smith as Agent-J and Tommy Lee Jones (kind of) as Agent-K.
The
plot of “Men In Black 3” (or cubed) deals mainly with the conceit of time
travel and alternate paradoxical realities, not too unlike the plot of “Back to
the Future II” or basically anything from television’s “Doctor Who”. After a
violent alien criminal known as Boris the Animal escapes from a moon prison, he
immediately seeks revenge on Agent-K. After an initial battle where Boris, played
by “Flight of the Conchords” actor/musician/comedian Jermaine Clement, eludes
the MIB, Agent-J wakes up to find that he now lives in an alternate reality in
which K was defeated by Boris back in 1969--when before the paradox, he was
originally imprisoned. J then embarks on
a secret mission to travel back to 1969, where he must find and kill Boris
before he terminates the 29 year old K, now played by Josh Brolin.
As with
many of these late-in-the-game franchise re-launch’s, this feels less like a
sincere creative effort and more like a frantic studio cash-grab. The first
half of the movie is introducing us to everything we remember from the first
two; the characters, the gizmo’s and of course the aliens, but unlike the first
installment where there was a true sense of wonder and enthusiasm, this sequel
feels a bit desperate, overreaching and ultimately over-polished. The second
half rewards a bit more but not without a hefty amount eye rolling and flat
attempts at hackneyed humor.
Like
“MIB II” this movie is more about effects driven sight-gags and less about the
characters. Here we see Will Smith doing his familiar, smart-alecky Fresh
Prince act. Knowing that he is nearly fifty years old and having seen him in much
more weighty projects since, such as “Pursuit of Happiness” and “Ali”, this
feels like a significant step backwards. Tommy Lee Jones has lost all interest
in this character and instead seems to be doing a lazily rehearsed version of
himself. Josh Brolin looks like he’s
having a lot of fun doing a very impressive Jones impression, but in the end
that’s all it really is, a hollow impersonation. Jermaine Clement is so
straddled by his make-up and CGI that he barely gets to do what he does best,
and unfortunately the writing for his character doesn’t play to his strengths
as a subtly eccentric comedian. I dare say the only legitimate performance in
this movie is given by Michael Stuhlbarg as an omniscient alien—whose plot
purpose is basically written in for expository reasons, but regardless he makes
it into something strange and memorable.
“Men in
Black 3” isn’t great on many levels. The plot is convoluted, the characters and
their chemistry are tired, and the special effects are showy and oftentimes
downright hokey. Most of all, it doesn’t seem to have that same kind of dark
comedic bite that the firsts one had. However, with all of that said, this
movie won’t offend you either. It simply just is (think “Pirates of the
Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”). It hits all of its intended genre-marks and
delivers enough moments of quirk and whimsy that you won’t get bored, even if a
day or an hour later you don’t remember anything about it.
Grade: C-
Originally published in The Basic Alternative/June-2012
