Men in Black 3 (2012)

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Starring Will Smith, Josh Brolin, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jemaine Clement, Tommy Lee Jones, Emma Thompson, Alice Eve, Bill Hader, Mike Colter, Nicole Scherzinger. [PG-13]

An alien inmate (Clement) breaks out of a prison on the moon and goes back in time over forty years to kill the man that had otherwise wiped out his entire species: Agent K (Jones). He succeeds, causing quite a kerfuffle in present day, sending Agent J (Smith) on a time-jumping mission to save his partner and the planet. A bounce-back after the dreadful first Men in Black sequel, but still nothing special. The time travel particulars don’t make much sense, and they open up a flood of paradoxical inconsistencies (not to mention easy ways to side-step the suspense), but despite a lot of familiar design and interplay ingredients, at least the story’s not a complete retread. As younger Agent K, Brolin does a convincing riff on Jones’ deadpan squawk, but Clement is wasted on a villain that isn’t interesting, funny or menacing. Oversteps toward the end with an emotional moment that doesn’t land (and aside from a brief allusion near the beginning of the film, comes out of nowhere). Hader is quite amusing poking fun at Andy Warhol. Will Arnett cameos, as do a few other familiar faces.

54/100