Men In Black 3

MEN IN BLACK 3

Written by Ethan Coen & Lowell Cunningham

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

Starring Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement

The first Men In Black film was a mega-hit, turning the overworked buddy-cop genre on its head with grotesque alien villains and yet another hip-pop bombshell from family friendly Will Smith. It's been fifteen years since the film landed, and in that time a critically lauded sequel failed to recapture the atmosphere of the original. For the third and potentially final time, the boys are back in town, and though the formula is tired, a few new tricks and shameless self-referencing manage to make this a modestly entertaining blockbuster.

After 14 years of partnership, the relationship between agents J (Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) is becoming more and more strained, particularly in the wake of Agent Z's death. K's reticence comes at the worst possible time, as an old foe of his - one-armed Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) - manages to escape his prison and travel through time, killing the young K. It is up to J to follow Boris back through the ages to save K, and, of course, the world.

It all kicks off with a bang, jumpstarting memories with classic Barry Sonnenfeld font choice and the unmistakable urgency of Danny Elfman's orchestrations. The new coat of paint doesn't shake the peculiar 90s feeling that pervades the whole film - it is of an era, and it isn't this one, but it can't be said that's entirely a bad thing. While there are plenty of nods to the original films, with a brief appearance by the MIB office worms and a cheekily framed portrait of Frank the Dog, the plot avoids getting bogged down in nostalgia and cuts straight to the point. In fact, it does so at the risk of not creating empathetic connections to anyone or anything other than Will Smith. Agent O (the hilarious Emma Thompson) is underused and Jones' K is tired and grumpy in an unamusing fashion when not entirely absent; J's classic sass, too, shows its age with vintage "jive-ass" 90s lingo finding its way a little too often into otherwise credible dialogue.

One character who does get just enough screen time is Boris the Animal, played with gruesome aplomb by one half of the Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement. He is a nasty piece of work who happens to have the full support of the special effects team for the length of the film, and he's entertaining almost exclusively because he's Jemaine. The film's one and only chiselled jaw belongs to former president Josh Brolin, who puts in the best Tommy Lee Jones impersonation yet seen, though he does occasionally drop a Bushism or two.

There are times when it's saddening to see just how much CGI has taken over from animatronics, and unique believable aliens are lacking here. The action sequences lack punch when opposite anyone other than Boris, as does the "life-changing" emotional twist at the tale's climax. Don't fret, animators - the time jump sequences are the saving grace for MIIIB's pixel-pushers, and are eye-poppingly gorgeous. 

It all feels overwhelmingly Sonnenfeld, as if the director is trying desperately to recapture something of his previous work. This is a given, really, with any 'threequel' produced so long after its predecessors - one shudders to think at what a terrible misstep a third Addams Family film would be. It is still worth the price of admission, as long as you're aware it was pumped out by people with little passion for producing such a piece of pop culture puff.

Men In Black 3 will do little to reinvigorate ardour for an old franchise, but it exists to entertain and achieves just that. Just be sure to leave before the pathetic credit song plays. It's rubbish, and in all honesty, the song in the original was a damn hard act to follow.