Men in Black 3

A clear improvement over its nigh disastrous predecessor, Men in Black 3 follows Agent Jay (Will Smith) as he’s forced to travel back through time after a vicious alien (Jemaine Clement’s Boris) murders Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) in 1969 – with the film detailing Jay’s continuing efforts at protecting Kay’s younger self (Josh Brolin) from the murderous advances of Clement’s nefarious character. Though it unfolds exactly as one might’ve anticipated – the film does, it becomes clear, boast a structure that’s right in line with the first two installments – Men in Black 3, for the most part, comes off as a consistently entertaining sequel that benefits substantially from the inclusion of impossible-to-resist sci-fi elements (ie time travel is, with few exceptions, impossible to mess up). The novelty of the premise, coupled with Brolin’s almost astonishingly engaging turn as the younger Kay, goes a long way towards compensating for the less-than-engrossing stretches within the narrative, although, by that same token, there’s little doubt that the movie’s midsection admittedly does suffer from its share of lulls (ie the film’s longer-than-necessary running time results in a number of dead zones throughout the proceedings). By the time the better-than-expected climax rolls around, Men in Black 3 has certainly established itself as an above average followup that stands as an obvious high point within this seemingly ongoing series.

*** out of ****