Men In Black 3 - movie review

Release date: 25 May 2012
Certificate: PG
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Starring: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin

What's the story?
When his partner K (Jones) is murdered in the past, Agent J (Smith) has to go back in time and team up with K's younger self (Brolin) to prevent it.

What did we think?
A decade on from Men In Black 2, Smith reunites with director Barry Sonnenfeld to put old beer in a flashy new bottle. Strip away the time travel, the 3D visuals and the new cast additions and you're left with a sequel that doesn't do enough to justify its existence.

In his first film in four years Will Smith goes back in time. Back to 1997 to be precise - the year he and Tommy Lee Jones first twinned up as the Men In Black, clandestine enforcers of Earth's secret alien community. Sadly, what felt fresh (prince) when Will was the new (bad) boy on the block now looks a sequel too far.

Black 3's primary gambit is to pension off Jones after the opening act and replace him with a younger model - namely Josh Brolin, revealed as the younger K once Smith's J has leaped back to 1969 to avert a present-altering outrage. Brolin does Tommy down to a T, ably replicating his deadpan delivery. Once the novelty has worn off, however, there's nothing for 3 to do but some replicating of its own as it endeavours to recreate the original's playful exuberance.

Doing so might have been easier had the screenplay had fewer wacky aliens and more actual jokes. Surely it's a flaw when the snarling villain (Jermaine Clement) gets more laughs than the highly paid lead, who looks more than a touch desperate as he tries to inject life into a franchise only he seems keen to perpetuate.

Verdict: Don't get jiggy with it.