Men in Black fades to grey
The agents are back – battling more alien creeps – but this is a pale echo of the original.
THefirst Men in Black hit the 90s like Hanson hit the hearts of pre-teen girls of the same era, blending edge-cutting CGI with some comedic chemistry created between its two polar-opposite leads.
With its expansive universe, it seemed as if the franchise could have stretched out into many films, though the abysmal sequel squelched that possibility.
After a decade of absence, we’re confusingly presented with this three-quel to a series many of us stopped caring about.
The trailers also showed little promise with standard-issuefxand overloaded Will Smith-isms (though, to the film’s credit, not once did I hear an ‘‘Aw, hell naw!’’).
However, MIB 3 isn’t a bad movie at all – it’s simply a vapid one.
Isolated throughout the movie are some truly neat ideas that they fail to capitalise on.
Jemaine Clement is superb as the lead baddie Boris the Animal, but is given only 15 minutes onscreen.
The time-jumping mechanic is a totally badass visual fiesta, but is used only twice.
Josh Brolin is freakishly convincing as a younger Agentkbut isn’t given anything interesting to do, spending most of his time droning out one-word reactions.
Without the Cgiwowfactor or the punchy script that carried the original, there just isn’t enough left to recommend in MIB 3.
There are spots of visual ingenuity and a great understanding of 3D that are rarely seen but it’s a timid wasteland of potential.