Alien Agenda Meets Time Travel

A decade after Agents K (the crusty Tommy Lee Jones) and J (the wise-cracking Will Smith) battled villainous aliens while looking cool in their black suits and sunglasses in 'Men In Black 2', the duo is back again to save the world, with a few surprises on the ride. Though the reviewer confesses that he is not a big fan of the science-fiction and alien attack genre,'Men In Black 3' is nevertheless a worthwhile watch, though it could have been better.

When an one-armed intergalactic villain named Boris the Animal (or "It's just Boris", as he roars) escapes from a lunar prison and goes back in time using a time travel device to kill Agent K and avenge the loss of his arm, Agent J must travel back in time to 1969 to save his partner (Josh Brolin as the younger Agent K) and kill the bad Boris (Jemaine Clement).

So back to 1969 we go, a world of 'make peace, not war' and taciturn men, who use words like 'slick’ and 'sport' while addressing someone. The two agents team up with a benevolent alien Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), who can see the future and is in possession of a technology named ArcNet shield, which can protect the Earth from an invasion by Boris' species. How the two agents race against time and manage to vanquish Boris at the launch site of the first Moon expedition forms the rest of the story. On the way, Agent J also gets to revisit his past and discover things about his own childhood and the hitherto unknown connection to Agent K.

Like always, Will Smith is a treat to watch, whether he is cracking jokes or getting moist-eyed about Agent K's fate while Tommy Lee Jones is his usual crusty self, though he looks quite tired and haggard. However, the surprise package is Brolin, who plays the younger Agent K so flawlessly that one ends up deciding then and there that no other actor could have so convincingly played the younger Jones. His mannerisms and personality are bang-on and Brolin effectively pulls off the role and a fresh face in the team is always welcome. Clement as Boris is not really a menacing villain though with his leonine roars and bad teeth…

On the flip side, the movie has nothing new to offer really and except for a few funny moments seen when Smith travels back to 1969, a time which was not quite open to the idea of racial equality, the latest installment has the same old 'hero/heroes dashing off to save the world' thing (a concept which has been employed time and again by Hollywood) going for it. Moreover, the banter between Jones and Smith, which were seen and enjoyed in the earlier installments, is regrettably watered down in this film. The action sequences are decent enough and mixing the plot with an actual historical event (the Apollo 11 lunar launch expedition) is a clever touch.

All in all,'Men In Black 3' makes for an entertaining watch and leaves one hoping that they get to see Brolin in the next series too (if any).