Sony Pictures is ready to revisit one of its more lucrative properties this summer with Men in Black III, a new 3D addition to the popular sci-fi comic book-turned-movie franchise. The plot of this new installment concerns yet another extraterrestrial being hell-bent on destroying the people of Earth, which forces the hip Agent J (Will Smith) and all-too-square Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) to once again team up and save the planet.
… Well, sort of.
The twist to the proceedings this time around – as revealed before in the Men in Black III teaser – is that J has to travel back in time to 1969, where he gets a “new partner” in the form of a younger Agent K (Josh Brolin).
A full-length trailer for the Men in Black threequel has been released online, and it provides an early look at the hilarity (?) that ensues when the (literally) generations-apart K and J have to work together and stop a crazy alien biker named Boris (Jemaine Clement) from wiping out humanity.
Have a look at the Men in Black III trailer below:
Besides featuring Brolin doing his best Tommy Lee Jones impression, MIB3 also takes advantage of its time-travel plot to add a different flavor to the standard jokes about certain celebrities and famous figures (here, from the 1960s) secretly being aliens or MIB employees. As you surely noted from the above trailer, the result is a threequel that still largely recycles the formula used by its predecessors.
Here is/are the million dollar question(s): Will that MIB formula feel tired a third time around? And will the matter of how the film’s screenplay (by MIB series director Barry Sonnenfeld’s own admission) was still being written after production began result in an overly-convoluted time-travel storyline full of plot holes?
MIB2 is widely considered to be inferior to the first Men in Black movie, but this third installment does have more going for it. Specifically, the added 3D element, improved visual effects, new acting blood in the form of Brolin, and a slight tweak to the setting which gives all the action an Austin Powers-style comedic “fish out of water” vibe.
If nothing else, those elements seem to be put to decent use (so far) and suggest that this third helping of wacky alien-induced mayhem could offer a fair amount of entertainment value. Take that for what it’s worth.
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Men in Black III opens in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D theaters around the U.S. on May 25th, 2012.
