Men In Black 3

“I promised the secrets of the universe, nothing more.”

I’ve never been a big Men in Black fan. When I saw the first one, I was coming off of the high from Independence Day the summer before, and compared to that blockbuster, it left me feeling disappointed. And the second film, I don’t even remember much. In fact I’m not entirely sure I saw the whole movie. So I was not overly excited to see MIB3, so take this review as you will.

I will start with the strengths, most of which is the plot surprisingly enough. When J has to go back in time to save K, there are just enough nuggets of hidden information to keep us interested in the conclusion. And I quite liked the character of Griffin the fifth dimensional being, who threw some interesting elements into the story.

The humour was very hit or miss this time around. A lot of the jokes fell flat, but some worked enough to balance the scales. There was a point when J was time jumping from the Empire State Building, and when he went through the stock market crash, he saw stock brokers falling with him. I was the only one to laugh in the whole theater. Oh well.

As for the special effects, they were fine enough, with the aliens as gross and globular as ever. But at this point in CGI visuals, it takes a lot to really be impressed, and this film was just another run of the mill effects film.

Here’s the major problem with Men in Black 3: it felt small. Considering its the long awaited threequel to a pretty big sci-fi franchise, you would except a large scale affair. But it feels very limited somehow. This is a benefit to the plot perhaps, but a detriment of the overall movie experience. The MIB offices feel like regular offices this time around. The time travel aspect is not explored nearly as much as it could have been. And the fact that there’s a full out invasion is almost glossed over. I think they scaled it back too much.

This was an enjoyable film with a pretty good story and ending, but I also felt like it failed a little on providing the necessary experience for a movie like this.
6/10