Before the newest installment in the Men in Black franchise, Men in Black was absent from movie cinemas for about 10 years but was able to bring back the magic and comedy that it left behind with the first movie. Josh Brolin and Will Smith are excellent whilst the plot completes the whole stories of Agent K and Agent J. Yes, I really do mean that we get to explore more of J’s past. A 10 year absence to cool off was absolutely what Men in Black needed.
Ever since it’s debut in Malibu comics which was later bought-out by Marvel comics, Men in Black has become on of the most recognizable science-fiction comedy franchises after its 1997 movie launch. The franchise even had its own animated series that lasted for four great seasons and I’ve started watching it in anticipation for this third movie installment.
The beginning of the movie thrusts us right in to something that made me feel very uneasy not only about the scene but about what the overall tone of the movie could be after seeing this scene. It starts with Nicole Scherzinger breaking Boris “The Animal” out of Lunar Max Prison and it is revealed that she is his girlfriend. She is allowed to visit Boris in his cell and the guards are extremely skeptical since he has never had a visitor before, but she starts to make out with him. Boris has an extremely long tongue and thrusts it right in her mouth which looked extremely awkward when it was pushing against her cheeks. She brings him a cake in which a spider-like creature crawls out and kills both of the guards allowing Boris to access the weapon cache and escape the prison. I thought this scene was just really weird and the fact that I have arachnophobia made me feel even more disgusted at Boris’s little friend that lives inside the palm of his hand. While we are on the topic of Boris, his performance throughout the whole movie was really good and seemed like an actual threat to not only Agent K, but to the world. It’s one of the reasons this Men in Black installment was better than the rest. Boris “The Animal” brought something to the table that none of the other villains did. There was a scene where the present version of Boris meets up with the younger version of Boris from 1960’s who is trying to get away with his plan but the older Boris tells him it wouldn’t work and gives him an idea on a new one that has to work judging from Boris’ past experience. The actor here put on a show for us and two different Boris’ really seemed like two different versions of the character to me by the way they talked and acted. I couldn’t say the same for this between Young and Old K because they are played by different actors. After the breakout, we learn that Agent Zed had died and his funeral at Men in Black Headquarters is going to be held. I’ll be honest here, it was extremely sad to see this character go and I thought it was great to see K show a little emotion after giving his speech that lacked everything that you would see at a real funeral. I was wrong to doubt the tone of the movie at the beginning.
The movie not only delivers a quality tale, but also great and humorous comedy. When Agent J is about to time jump for the first time, he is warned that people in 1960s aren’t too keen about his “kind” and that he should be careful on what he does. As a black man, you never know what you could be framed for in the old days or how you would be judged for it. There wasn’t a huge amount of comedy like in the second movie but there was an amazing amount to get some great laughs. The best lines were delivered by Agent J who is played by Will Smith, Young Agent K who is played by Josh Brolin and Emma Thompson who plays Agent O had an unexpected and funny moment during Zed’s funeral in my opinion. There is a unique character named Griffin who has some really uplifting scenes and he was involved in the ending where we usually get a comedic take on our universe. It’s not as good as the first movie’s ending where our galaxy was only but a marble to the whole universe but it was still very funny. I think the comedy shined in this movie but some jokes do fall flat like in most comedy movies but the laughs kept coming and were great but didn’t outshine the quality plot we got about Boris and K’s past.
There are plenty of things in this movie that I was upset about such as the absence of Frank the pug. There was no real explanation of Frank’s absence but he does make a cameo twice in the film in picture form. Also, the scene where J and Boris time jump together off the rocket was slightly confusing as I thought Boris would remember the jump as well since he went with J and why another Agent J didn’t co-exist despite there being two Boris’ after the 40 year long jump to kill Younger K. I think that may be a plot hole. I also didn’t like how Young Agent O didn’t seem enthusiastic as the older version and Alice Eve slightly failed to capture the essence of Emma Thompson’s Agent O. Why do people consider Alice for every comic book character that has blonde hair? Men in Black 3 did have its negatives but I feel the positives over-weigh them.
I give the movie a 7.5 out of 10 rating. What do you say?