Thursday, 7 June 2012

FILM REVIEW - Men in Black 3 (Spoiler-free)

Directed by: Barry Sonnenfeld
Written by: Etan Cohen, Lowell Cunningham
Starring: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin
Release Year: 2012
Genre: Sci-Fi/Comedy
Certificate: PG


I went to watch the third, and hopefully final, Men in Black film the other day with high expectations, the previous two movies featuring the intergalactic crime-fighting duo with Will Smith playing Agent J and Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K  had gripping plots, dynamic screenplay and state of the art special effects creating timeless films with enough humour and action to satisfy any audience, resulting in a deserved billion dollar franchise. And Men in Black 3 was no exception.

The storyline is fairly clichéd and unoriginal; without giving anything away the plot revolves around Agent J, played by Will Smith, travelling back in time to 1969 to rescue young Agent K, played convincingly by Josh Brolin, to prevent an armada of planet devouring aliens destroying earth in modern times, a common theme to many sci-fi films including the recent Marvel Avengers Movie.

Despite the predictable nature of the plot, Sonnenfeld manages to revitalise the plot and also create a rather surprising twist right at the end of the film. The dynamic nature of the film combined with the comic book puns and gripping action sequences, including a bike chase involving high-tech unibikes (reminiscent of the single wheeled vehicle used by General Grievous in Star Wars episode 3) chasing the main villain named Boris (Jemaine Clement) who is on a hardcore custom chopper through the streets of New York, results in an entertaining and truly enjoyable film experience.

The acting as usual for the star filled cast was excellent and convincing, thank god as ultimately, it is a professional actor’s job to create a convincing character; it is what they are paid to do, but particular kudos goes to Josh Brolin for his quite frankly epic portrayal of a young Agent K. The on-screen chemistry between Will Smith and Brolin appeared to be the same as the Chemistry between Smith and Tommy Lee-Jones, a feat that required a skilled actor such as Brolin. Brolin further completed the illusion of being a younger Lee- Jones through the manner that he imitated Lee-Jones facial expressions and body language which must have required a great deal of before filming research. My respect also goes out to the makeup department who managed to make the two actors seem uncannily similar, also aiding in the convincing portrayal of a young agent K.

Talking of a star filled cast, when you go to see the film look out for a certain Lady GaGa on the alien watchdog screen and a short but satisfying appearance from Nichole Scherzinger as a biker chick.

I also recommend that you see MIB 3 in 3D as, unusually, the 3D effects have been used to good effect, a relief as most current 3D films really do not make use of the feature. I often noticed audience members flinch as lasers, glass, alien guts and saliva “flew” out of the screen at relevant times.

As with all films, there were a few disappointing points about this final instalment of the Men in Black trilogy. Unlike the previous films, Men in Black 3 lacked the “jump” factor that was common in its predecessors, a feature which I sorely missed.  

At times the story seemed to lack continuity and logic, the directors also appeared to have forgotten about the previous explanations they had created for Agent K’s cold nature offering yet another reason, revealed at the end of the feature. Sonnenfeld also appears to have forgotten all about K’s previous wife and his estranged daughter in the final explanation, a disappointing continuity error for MIB fans. 

However, the comedy quips, intense action sequences, engaging emotions and fabulous 3D effects have more than compensated for these minor blemishes on yet another good MIB film.

Therefore, MIB 3 gets a big fat 8 on the crashometer, a film that I recommend to you all.

8/10

Special thanks to our good friend Luke for writing this review for us. If you've seen MiB3, let us know what you thought of it in the comments.
And that's all for this weeks movie info. Tomorrow, I'll be writing this weeks Crunch, talking about unknown musicians. Hope to see you then.
Tom :)

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