Men In Black 3 however, is an example of how one of these can lead to fond memories and recollections of the original film, rather than completely tarnishing it's name.
The film reunites us with our old favourite men in black agents, J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) as they face yet another threat to mankind. This time it's Boris The Animal (Jemaine Clement) who has a lifelong grudge against Agent K for shooting off his arm. To get revenge, he travels back in time to 1969 to kill a young Agent K (Josh Brolin) and place Earth in danger from extinction. It's left to Agent J to also travel back in time and prevent all of this from happening, while getting to know the young Agent K in the process.
When the original Men in Black came out in 1997, it was a fresh comedy piece that played on the well-known alien stereotypes from the sci-fi genre. As always, it was the sequel Men In Black II, released in 2002, that lacked any originality or to add any further insight into the mythos of the characters or the alien agency that they work for. It was just there. Another film that shared the same name, but didn't really do much else.
That's where Men In Black 3 makes it's first improvement on the first sequel - it actually tries to add something to the backstory of it's two main characters. The whole notion of Agent J travelling back in time (a tricky thing to do, apparently) to save his partner's life is motivation enough to add some interesting character backstory. While the film does flounder in not really giving us enough as we would like about the characters, it's the final scene that really adds an unusual emotional punch in an otherwise zany comedy series.
The casting choices for Men In Black 3 is where the film really shines, and for a comedy film it's pretty important to get the characters right. Having Josh Brolin play the younger Agent K was sheer brilliance. Throughout the film I was convinced that they had dubbed Tommy Lee Jone's voice over the top of his and was shocked to find out from some internet research at home that it was all him.
The villain this time around was equally well-casted. Jemaine Clement lacked the certain twitchy bug-like characteristics of the original film's villain, Edgar (Vincent D'Onofrio), but Boris The Animal was a massive step up in terms of menace and character than Men In Black II's villain, Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle). While I would have liked to have seen him use a bit more than just his trusty bug firing spikes to kill people and certainly some more of him in his original form (than just the fleeting shot that we get at the end of the film), the CGI used on his character was very well done. It was suitably icky and disgusting whenever his bug crawled out of the palm of his hand or when he gave his girlfriend (Nicole Scherzinger) the grossest French kiss I have seen in a long time!
While some of the jokes fall flat - Agent O's (Emma Thompson) "alien speak" speech was the lamest joke I've seen in a long time - many of the dull moments are forgiven, as Men In Black 3 is just the kind of feel-good film where you can just switch your brain off to. It's the alien that can see into the future, Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg) that provides most of this light-relief.
Overall, Men In Black 3 isn't an amazing film, but it's a step up from the previous instalment and also provides some fond memories of the original film. It's just a shame that Will Smith didn't sing another theme tune for this one...
*** / *****
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