Back in Black

Seeing the newest Men in Black wasn't exactly high on my list. But I did go, and was actually pleasantly surprised. It turns out that this new film might just be the best of the bunch. The reason is that, while the film does preserve the sight gag and whiz-bang mentality of the first two, it adds a far greater dose of heart and sentiment than either of its predecessors had.

The spine of the film is the relationship between Agents J and K. The plot involves an alien baddie that K captured and imprisoned back in 1969. He escapes in the present day, then time travels back to kill K before that fateful moment. To restore the timeline and save his friend, J takes a major leap of faith (literally) and travels back to right events.

You could certainly judge most of what happens as necessary for the demands of the story. But it all unfolds in a way very organic to character. J is instructed to avoid all contact with young K and avoid revealing the truth of his mission back to the 1960s. Instead, he ends up confiding in and working with the young agent. K, a humorless hard-ass as embodied by Tommy Lee Jones for 15 years, is revealed to be a more fun and almost free-spirited man in his youth, and a running thread revolves around "what happened to him" to change that.

And then there's the climax of the story, a big character moment involving both agents. It won't move you to tears or anything, but it is by far the most genuine sentiment expressed in the entire series. It has a nice callback to the first movie embedded within it, is emotionally potent, and represents a great conclusion to the film.

But there are some flaws with the movie as well. For one thing, it's really too brisk. As though fearing that a movie that's fundamentally a comedy just shouldn't get too long, several moments feel missing from the story. Even more character moments between J and K would have been appreciated to set up better for the ending. And elements of the plot are lacking in any explanation whatsoever: why is J the only one who can remember the former, correct timeline after its altered; why does time travel sometimes create a duplicate person and other times replace the person in a pre-existing body; why the hell is a somebody leaving his son alone in the car for hours on the beach on a hot summer day?

There's also an inherent bit of good news/bad news built into the premise of seeing J interact with a young agent K. The good news is that Josh Brolin is phenomenal. He manages to channel Tommy Lee Jones more than impersonate him. You never question that he's the same character 40 years younger. The bad news is that this franchise was built on the interaction between Jones and Will Smith, and the two get maybe 10 minutes of screen time together here, tops. It's like a sequel to a "buddy cop" movie where the buddy cops are never actually together. (And yet, they are! Weird.)

I wouldn't say Men in Black III is a "rush out to see it" kind of film, but it is a "do see it" film, particularly if you liked the original. (Your opinion of the lackluster second installment probably doesn't factor into it.) I rate it a B-.