Review: Men in Black 3

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

In cinemas now

When Boris The Animal breaks out of the LunarMax prison, Agent K’s life is on the line – as is everyone else’s on Earth…

Lacking the novelty value of the first Men in Black film, but definitely streets ahead of the bloated sequel, this is an enjoyable way of passing a hundred or so minutes. It’s neither a fantastic film nor a dire one – it’s the sort of thing that is fun while it lasts, but doesn’t really make that much of an impression.

It has some good points, notably Josh Brolin’s incredible impersonation of Tommy Lee Jones, down to the inflections on certain words, and the facial expressions. Watching in 2D, there is the odd moment where the necessities of the 3D process mean that shots are framed oddly (the look down from the Chrysler Building for example), but there’s none of the annoying “look at us, we’re in 3D” footage that just pulls you out of the story if you’re not watching with the gimmick.

Will Smith is back on form. Early parts of the movie were shot before they halted production to work on the script, and you can almost see the moment at which they picked up again with a storyline that made (a degree of) sense: Smith is much more relaxed and nearer the Agent J of old. We get enough of the usual time travel gags to establish that J is definitely back in 1969, but they’re not overplayed: once he and K team up, then the setting is relevant in plot terms rather than for gags.

Verdict: Once it gets going properly, Men in Black 3 is fun but not essential.  6/10

Paul Simpson