Review: Men in Black 3 better than predecessor

Film: Men in Black 3
Cast: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Jermaine Clement, Josh Brolin
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Rating: ***

Agents J (Smith) and K (Jones) are back, ensuring that red-blooded Americans remain oblivious to the presence of the numerous alien life forms that are among them. In between fulfilling this routine aspect of their office they must occasionally rid the city of the scum of the universe. Which brings us to the beginning...

The film opens with a femme fatale making her way through a maximum security prison. Bearing an innocuous cake, she facilitates, with this cliché, the escape of the place’s most infamous inmate Boris the Animal (Clement). The prison, as it turns out, is on the moon, built exclusively for the muscle-bound, albeit one armed creature.     

Filled with vengeance against K, the man who robbed him of his limb and his freedom since 1969, he seeks to rewrite history via time travel to take ultimately over the world. And though they aren't having the greatest working relationship, when K is erased from his life, J must ensure that his one-time mentor's younger self kills Boris once and for all that fateful day in 1969.

Though more out-rightly cartoonish, it’s the same odd couple, same incredible odds and same oodles of space oddities. However, two things work for the film such as the exploration of J’s crusty and taciturn partner’s hitherto unexplored past. The other is the ever-vibrant 60’s setting which successfully induces a few laughs with the bizarre revelation that Andy Warhol was a Man in Black and J’s encounters with cops who clearly aren’t keeping abreast with the civil rights movements of the time.

Smith, whose character must travel back in time, is infectious with his charming motormouth schtick which contrasts Lee Jones’ stoic deadpan act. Brolin as K’s younger version is pretty dead-on in his mannerisms. The presence of Rip Torn as the agency’s boss Agent Z, as well as Frank the Pug, is sorely missed in the film. Flight of the Conchords Clement, as the villain, for all his snarling and his dire need of a dental plan, he’s no Edgar- the disgusting bug creature essayed in all his gross-out glory by Vincent D'Onofrio.

Sadly, the film doesn’t possess the same doses of humour that catches you off guard with aliens emerging out of the unlikeliest places (or people). However, the comic timing of the cast is near-immaculate and the inherently complex, well-worn theme of time travel, however, is breezily and unpretentiously presented.

Yes, there are also the expected fast-paced chases and a lot of inter-special roughhousing but visually, there isn’t much grandeur (cosmic or otherwise), nothing that warrants a watch in 3D anyway.

While Men in Black 3 isn’t a threequel of the likes of The Army of Darkness or Toy Story 3, it does surpass its predecessor. The decent performances, just-about-right pacing, and good but not mind-blowingly spectacular or imaginative special effects make the film decent enough fare to wile away an evening.