Men in Black 3 (2012)

Back in black for a third time, Will Smith stars as Agent J in the third (but not final) and best installment so far in the Men in Black series, which is based on the Lowell Cunningham comic book series. Tommy Lee Jones reprises his role as Agent K, with Josh Brolin joining the cast in an excellent performance as the young Agent K from 1969. Emma Thompson plays the role of Agent O, the present day head of MIB; and Jemaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords fame) rounds out the main cast as the antagonist: a Boglodite named “Boris the Animal”. Written by Etan Cohen (not to be confused with Ethan Coen of the Coen brothers) and directed by Barry Sonnenfield, Men in Black III (MIB3) was released on May 25^th, 2012.

As many sci-fi movies do, MIB3 involves time travel and alien invasions as two key plot points. In the beginning, Agents J (Smith) and K (Jones) are confronted by a recently escaped Boris (Clement), who is trying to get revenge on K for imprisoning him. Instead of fighting, Boris warns the agents that K is “already dead”. J then learns that on July 16^th 1969, K was responsible for deploying the ArcNet, a protective field that stopped the Boglodites from invading and led to their extinction (except for Boris, who was imprisoned on the moon). J wakes up the next day to find himself in an alternate reality in which K was killed by Boris 43 years ago. J must then travel back in time to stop Boris from killing K and stop the Boglodite invasion by deploying the ArcNet. This isn’t as easy as it may first sound, as the 1969 version of K (Brolin) is at first extremely resistant in believing J’s story.

MIB3 has great cinematography, as one would expect from a director (Sonnenfield) who is a former cinematographer, working in that role on When Harry Met Sally… (1989). Sonnenfield has also matured as a director since first taking on the position in The Addams Family (1991), with his largest successes being Get Shorty (1995) and the TV series Pushing Daisies. Also the director of the first two Men in Black movies and of “Wild Wild West”, Sonnenfield has a great deal of experience working with the film’s lead actor, Will Smith. It is perhaps this reason that Smith gives his best performance of the three MIB films.

Movies in the sci-fi genre like to reference their genre counterparts, and MIB3 is no exception. J tells K that he is going “Jedi Knight” on him, which is a clear reference to George Lucas’ Star Wars (1977). Other classic movie references show up, including Hondo (1953) – K refers to J as “Hondo” – and Jerry Maguire – Boris says “You complete me” to the crawling creature that somehow maintains a symbiotic relationship with the Boglodite. The most contrived reference has to be to No Country for Old Men, which stars both Brolin and Jones. In one scene, K asks J what the most destructive force in the universe is, with J answering: “Sugar?”. In No Country for Old Men, Moss (Brolin) mistakes the name ‘Chigurh’ for ‘Sugar’, with Javier Bardem’s character Chigurh being a very destructive force in that movie.

Both Smith and Brolin put in excellent performances in this film, allowing its somewhat unbelievable plot (even for science fiction) to be carried through to the end. If you are a fan of the first two MIB movies or a fan of light-hearted comedy/science fiction crossovers, then MIB3 will definitely entertain.