Published in the print-only TV guide of The Marshall Independent.
The Men in Black are back.
Ten years after the release of Men in Black II (2002,) and fifteen years after the release of Men in Black the first (1997,) we are treated to the glorious good fun of Men in Black 3. I sure hope this isn’t a geometric progression, because then we’d have to have to wait another 20 years to catch the next installment.
In modern urban folklore, the men in black are mysterious operatives from a super-secret government agency who show up when people see UFOs to intimidate witnesses into keeping silent. Or maybe they’re aliens themselves.
Kerry Thornley, counterculture publisher, conspiracy theorist, founder of the Discordian religion, and onetime friend of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, claimed to have encountered the men in black on a few highly-unpleasant occasions.
From the movies of the same name, we know that the Men in Black are agents of some kind of agency dedicated to
“protecting the Earth from the scum of the universe.” The films are based on the Men in Black comic book series by Lowell Cunningham, originally published by Malibu Comics, and continued when Malibu was acquired by Marvel in 1994.
MIB also functions as a kind of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, keeping the resident aliens on Earth in line and undercover.
And it turns out there are a lot of aliens living among us in disguise. In fact quite a few of them work for the post office, as we learned in Men in Black II.
The Men in Black clean up the messes left after humans have encounters with aliens, with includes wiping the memories of anybody who has learned of the aliens among us.
This installment begins when an alien criminal Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) escapes from LunarMax prison seeking revenge against Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) who blew his arm off, prevented his species from conquering the Earth, and sent him to prison back in 1969.
Boris wants to go back in time to kill K.
He does.
But, K’s partner Agent J (Will Smith) remembers K when nobody else does. The new chief of MiB Agent O (Emma Thompson,) who has history with K, (OK, get it?) quickly figures out there’s a rip in the fabric of space-time and sends J back after Boris the Animal to save K, and the Earth.
Agent J teams up with his partner’s younger self (Josh Brolin,) which is a great set-up to give ytou some of K’s back story. You also get J’s back story, and his hitherto unknown family connection with the agency.
MIB3 is a strange loop story, in the tradition of the first Terminator movie. It’s also a fun flick with a lot of action, witty banter, and ‘60s in jokes.
Josh Brolin does a great job as young K, got the mannerisms down to the point you totally forget Tommy Lee Jones has only what amounts to a bit part in this episode. Will Smith is his usual wise-cracking self we’ve grown to love since he was the Fresh Prince.
The film also introduces a new character Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg,) an alien who sees not just the future, but all possible futures arising from any decision made in the here-and-now.
I hope we see more of him in the future that happens where they decide to make a Men in Black 4. Unless it’s the future where they decide to make a Men in Black 4 and the producers get lazy and complacent and it stinks.
This is a great father-son movie. Your boys will enjoy the action and the cool alien monsters, and you’ll like the humor and the clever plot devices.
And it doesn’t hurt that without hitting you over the head with it, there’s a fair amount of heroism, nobility, comradeship, and loyalty. The kind of thing you’re not ashamed to expose your kids to.