MEN IN BLACK 3
US, 2012, 103 minutes, Colour.
Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Jemaine Clement, Emma Thompson, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alice Eve, David Rasche, Bill Hader.
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.
The placing of an earth protecting shield on the Apollo, 1969, moments before blast off, Andy Warhol as a government undercover agent, Mick Jagger an alien come to earth to impregnate earth women? National Enquirer headlines? No, just some of the plot elements in Men in Black 3!
Not being a fan of the first two films, I approached this one with caution, and was pleasantly surprised. Whether the ardent fans will be pleased is difficult to work out until we see box office results. It is actually fifteen years since the original film and ten years since the second. A decade between the sequel and this threequel, a long time in movie franchise land. However, here it is.
Once again Will Smith is the genial agent J, just as energetic as ever. Once again Tommy Lee Jones is Agent K, just as laconic as ever. But this time there is more than one Agent K. J has to go back to 1969 to alter history – and finds K’s younger self, played expertly by Josh Brolin doing a Tommy Lee Jones impersonation. And there is Agent O, played by Emma Thompson with a wry sense of humour even when she goes into squealing, squirming mode delivering a sympathy message to her staff in Venusian! (Agent O is present back in 1969 in the form of Alice Eve, but this is troubling casting as it is impossible to imagine Alice Eve growing older to be Emma Thompson.)
And there is an arch-villain, Boris the Animal, imprisoned in a lunar security prison for forty years but now breaking out and altering history. Hence the time travel. New Zealand’s Jermaine Clement (from the Flight of the Conchords and his impressive turn in Gentleman Broncos), tall, resonant voice and a really bad set of iron teeth, obviously relishes this role.
And, for the fans, there are still a whole range of aliens on earth who break out of their disguises with sometimes sinister, sometimes comic, effects.
The film is mainly Will Smith’s as he is the one to go back in time, to try to capture Boris the Animal, to save Ks’ life. So, plenty of action and humour. And, there is a very nice alien, Griff, who has the power to visualize many possibilities at once, especially the grimmer ones. He holds a key to the solution – and has the last word. He is played with some sweetness by Michael Stuhlberg.
Critics were asked not to tell their audiences about the final ‘revelation’. And this review won’t. Suffice to say, I am glad I did not know what it was and was all the more pleased with it.
1. The popularity of the series? The gaps between films? The popularity of hero films in the early 21st century?
2. The imagination behind the Men in Black stories? The agency, aliens co-existing with humans, their hostility? The agency in control? The role of the Men in Black? Secrecy, missions?
3. The visuals: the Men in Black office, the creatures and the makeup, 21st century New York? 1969 New York? Costumes and decor, cars, offices? The Andy Warhol Factory? Florida, Cape Canaveral, the coast? The impact of the visuals? The musical score?
4. Audience knowledge of Agent J, Agent K? Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith and their style, characters, manner? Way of talking? J open, K not? The secrets of the past? Agent O and her control? The obituary, K being laconic – and O with her message spoken in Venusian?
5. The opening, the girl in the lunar prison, Boris the Beast, his appearance, behaviour, voice? The guards? Boris as an alien, engineering his escape? Coming to Earth, ruthless, his contact with the son of the man who invented the time travel? Boris and his changing time and history? K and Boris’s loss of his arm? Returning to New York, to Cape Canaveral, wanting control of the world? In 1969, the killing at Coney Island? The confrontation with K? At the Cape, the rocket, fighting J, fighting K? The two Borises? His almost winning? Griff seeing the different possibilities? K deciding to kill Boris?
6. O, her work, control, her speech, the Venusian? Her interacting with J in the parallel time world? Relationship with K? Her work in the past, glamorous?
7. J, his experiencing the time change? His puzzles about K, wanting to know the secrets, at home, the phone call, the video game, going to meet K? Boris and the time change? The discussions with O? His going to the son of the time travel inventor? Being taken to the top of the Chrysler Building, his fall, the accidents on the way down, the encounter with Boris? Transferring to 1969? New York, taking the car, going to Coney Island, the death of the friendly alien? K, the interrogation? K believing him? The visit to Andy Warhol’s Factory – and the comedy about Andy Warhol being a man in black, being undercover, the parody of life at the Factory, the characters? Andy Warhol and his irritation by many of the characters at the Factory?
8. The decision to go to Florida, the machines, arrival, the desperate time?
9. Meeting Griff, from another planet, stranded on Earth, in the bar, the comedy about the various possibilities, people coming in doors, the alternates? A nice alien? His going to Florida?
10. The 1969 moon launch, the dates, the changing in history, J and K, approaching the shuttle, the officer and his being treated with the neural machine? His help? His death? J and K going up to the rocket, the fights with Boris, the literal cliff-hangers, action?
11. K, the final confrontation with Boris, his death? K and his putting the protective shield on the rocket?
12. The colonel, his son, the watch? J watching this episode, K and his adopting J? The emotional effect of this revelation for the audience? J and his better understanding K?
13. Audiences enjoying the comedy with Josh Brolin’s impersonation of Tommy Lee Jones? The phrases, the looks, the laconic manner? The younger K admitting that J was a good agent?
14. The return to the present, J talking with K, the secrets? And Griff appearing – and looking for the good possibilities?
