3 out of 5

Director: Barry Sonnenfeld

Though it starts in a (perhaps purposefully) tone of muddled and mixed excess and drab, MiB3 ends up being the first in the series to actually get most of its humor and story directly from its characters and not external alien humor.  It’s also appreciated that the film subverted what would be the obvious humor in a time travel story – fish out of water – and gave us ‘my future gadgets are more futuristic than your future gadgets’ giggles, which is about 90 extra layers of creativity than most movies offer.  Still, the series has fully established itself as something cheeky, so it can’t really surpass that at this point, but by the same token, to deliver a solidly entertaining entry that stands on its own, and feels fresh with the same actors and characters 15 years after the original – well, I’d take one of those every Summer, Mr. Sonnenfeld.  Here’s what we’re given for this go-round: a very old looking K (Jones – in make up?  all natural?  both?) is extra grumpy after the passing of Zed.  Upon hearing that a Boglodite has escaped from a jail on the moon (in a fun intro sequence that prepares us for another 90 minutes of full-on cheeky), K gets even more grumpy, then disappears.  Smith – J – learns that there’s time travel afoot, and so he must go into the past to meet a younger K (Brolin) and stop a time-spanning Boglodite plot to commit mad world-overtaking atrocities.  While the film has a healthy dose of effects and aliens and full CGI Will Smiths, the Brolin version of K, much more chummy, gives the film a facelift and character, moving it past the silent old-timer gag established in flick one.  Smith also gets to display his comedic timing (which has always been damned good) with the script lightly playing with how an era with more outspoken racism deals with a black dude who has the gadgets to mindzap.  Yes, there’s another funny deus ex machina alien and goo and creatures and climactic end battle, but MiB 3 is certainly the most human of the series… which is a good way of balancing scripting scales against relying on funny aliens to drive the thing (something the script pokes at which K’s resigned understanding of, for example, all models being aliens).  And there can be nothing but praised heaped upon Brolin for somehow finding the right mix of impression of Jones and making the role his own.  The movie is simply fun, nothing more.  As it should be.