It appears everything is coming in threes. In the last few months we have had The Three Musketeers, The Three Stooges and, now, Men in Black Three. All available in 3-D.
MIB III follows Men in Black (MIB I) in 1997 and Men in Black II (MIB II) in 2002. Although only 10 years have gone by, Tommy Lee Jones looks at least three times as old as he did last time. Will Smith has not aged a day.
Rip Torn (Agent ZED), the MIB leader, has died. Actress Emma Thompson (Agent O) takes his place. The plot is about time travel. WS must travel to 1969 to prevent TLJ’s character from getting killed – otherwise mankind will be destroyed in 2012. This is easier said than done. There are lots of complications with this time travel stuff. I, for one, cannot figure out exactly how it’s done. It’s all very mysterious.
After the usual messy encounter with aliens on Earth, WS is off to 1969 and his encounter with destiny. He only has seconds to stave off imminent disaster and save the world from being consumed by creatures who look like a combination of jellyfish and cheese balls. He is also trying to deal with Tommy Lee Jones, 43 years younger, in the persona of actor Josh Brolin. Without giving much away, I can tell you the TLJ character doesn’t change much during the 43 year span. Same black suit and tie – same person. Josh might not be TLJ, but he does a nice job portraying the younger version of him.
The film clicks along nicely with everything unreeling at an excellent pace. The finale is fairly predictable, and a character added near the conclusion adds no surprises to the plot. Danny Elfman reprises the theme music from the first two films and adds a number of new scores, which add the atmosphere this film needs to expand beyond broad comedy and into respectable action film.
The special effects steal much of the show. This film was very expensive with a budget rumored at over $250 million. It also had lots of production problems and shooting delays. Still, for fans of this series, it’s a respectable outing number three.
Rated three out of 4.0 for fans. If you haven’t seen the first two films, MIB III is a 2.5 since not much of anything will make any sense.