Men in Black 3 Blu-ray Review

• 12th Nov 2012

The Boys in black are back in town for one more surreal rumble.

So just when we all thought that Men In Black 2 had forever killed the idea of MiB being a continuing successful franchise, along comes a third instalment. It may have taken ten years to convince the Hollywood movers and shakers to take another punt on Barry Sonnenfeld’s crazy MiB universe, but here it is.

Agents J and K are indeed back, of course played again by Will Smith, and Tommy Lee Jones. This time though, they are joined (via time travel shenanigans), by Josh Brolin brilliantly playing a much younger K.

So due to the aforementioned time travel malarkey, our movie takes place, both in the present day, and back in 1969. As is common with this type of story, the present day sections act as setup and conclusion bookends around the main 1969 centre section.

So briefly then, there’s an alien antagonist (Boris the Animal), who, with the help of a former Pussycat Doll, escapes ultra-maximum security prison (on the moon), and embarks on an ambitious plot to get his revenge on the young man responsible, not only for putting him there, but for shooting off his arm in the process (that young man being K in 1969).

The plan (rather than y’know, just go and kill him), is to steal a time travel device, go back to 1969 and help his younger self defeat K then….which of course he does, thereby altering the present reality, thereby erasing K from all history post 1969, and causing havoc with the timeline. In this altered present, only J remembers how the timeline was supposed to be, and he has to convince his MiB superiors of what has happened. If all this is sounding rather small in scope for an MiB plot, I might add that; in killing the 1969 K, and changing the course of history; Boris also manages to erase the existence of one of Earth’s key planetary defences (the ArcNet), rendering the planet vulnerable to an all out invasion by his people, which of course begins almost immediately.

So while the Earth is coming apart at the seams, and falling to unstoppable invasion; J is tasked with going back to 1969 and sorting it all out.

As it’s time travel, logic can unravel quite quickly, and it doesn’t pay to overanalyse the details, or worry about paradox, timeline wobble, or any other issues. My advice is to leave your brain at the door and go just with it.

Brain safely stowed, we cue a splendid adventure, and a most enjoyable MiB roller-coaster ride indeed.

I’m not really here to review the movie in too much detail, rather we shall be talking about the Blu-Ray package.

However, perhaps if there’s time at the end…….

OK, so the movie is presented in 185:1 just like the previous instalments were. I’m generally not a big fan of this ratio, much preferring a proper anamorphic 235:1 scope for my movies. Yes, I know sometimes the very wide screen of 235:1 can make framing verticals a bit iffy, but for me, nothing says ‘epic’ more than proper 235:1 (or larger) ratio. Go watch Alien (235:1), and then Aliens (185:1), and you’ll see what I mean.

Moving on, the image quality is good, and as you might expect from a modern movie, grain is almost non-existent, and colours are deep and vivid. The inherent picture density of the Blu-Ray certainly lends itself to movies like this, although I do sometimes struggle with highly kinetic SFX sequences. I think it’s part and parcel of how the kind of CG effects a movie like MiB3 often uses, translate to the HD medium. Some shots seem less convincing than they did at theatres for example. Overall though, the picture clarity and clean noise free blacks and whites are perfectly decent, and the film looks polished and shiny.

Audio is full DTS 5.1 HD Master (no 7.1 option), and although the sound-mix is quite hard work sometimes, it’s well presented and imaginatively mixed. It does suffer a little from my most hated bugbear which is the old ‘ride the remote’ dynamic range syndrome. Quiet bits are proper quiet and loud bits are super loud. For single guys and gals with deaf neighbours, it’s not a problem; you just crank your system up so the quiet bits are right, and let the rest sort itself out. Those of us with sleeping kids in adjacent rooms however, will need to ride that remote, otherwise you’ll either wake the chilluns, or not know what the hell’s being said.

Extras

The list of included bonus features on this release is pretty good, but falls a little short of top marks. There is no commentary track for instance, which for me is an instant and significant demerit.

There are a bunch of short and medium length documentaries that are quite fun though.

Top of the cake being the 26 minute ‘Partners In Time: The Making Of MiB3’ – It’s not possible to make a really satisfying ‘making of..’ doc in 26 minutes, but this one makes a better fist of it than many.

Next are two short featurettes clocking in at around 10 minutes apiece:

The Evolution Of Cool: MiB 1960s Vs. Today – A pretty cool comparative piece featuring the redesigned modern MIB headquarters, and the beautifully realised 1960s version.

Keeping it Surreal: The Visual FX of MiB3 – This is basically a roundup of the film’s SFX

Also included are two more specific collections of SFX and Animation breakdowns, which all together clock in at around thirty-five minutes.

Wrapping things up is a reasonable Gag Reel, a pretty repetitive shoot ’em up game ‘Spot The Alien’ which you will play once, if at all (it is badly hamstrung by having to play using your remote), and the music video for Pitbull’s ‘Back In Time’ promo-single.

Lastly, the disc features the latest ‘Ultraviolet’ copy/streaming technology – I’ve yet to get in to this as the new alternative to the simple digital copy, but the ability to stream the movie on multiple devices is tres modern, and could suit many buyers lifestyles better.

I have to say I actually enjoyed MiB3, rather more than I was expecting to, and I’m very glad it finally arrived. Make no mistake, the second film was an unmitigated disaster (even though it made a profit), and indefinitely shelved the franchise. If a third movie was ever going to get the green light, it was going to have to bring something new to the table, as well as try to capture the fun of the original. To this end; MiB3’s story is engaging and absorbing (if tried and tested), and the script often snappy and satisfying, if not consistently so. There are a fair few genuine laugh out loud moments, and overall pacing is good, if a little uneven. The design language is wonderful; I loved the updated MiB headquarters, particularly in juxtaposition to the look of its 1960s counterpart. In fact, the whole look of the movie is very pleasing, and has that significantly hyper-real vibe that MiB always creates. The portion set in 1969 ramps this sensation up to 11, adding a huge dollop of nostalgia (albeit of the predictable kind), into the mix. It all helps reinforce how much of a ‘man out of time’ J really is in this world. It was a vibe that really worked for me. The effects are for the most part as you’d expect, and while mostly excellent and always fun, you do have to forgive a certain cartoonish quality as having become just part of the MiB deal. The downside of this, if you choose to look at it, is that there is sometimes a noticeable disconnect between Rick Baker’s truly wonderful creature design, and some of the more outlandish CG sequences. The effects definitely work best when Baker’s work fuses seamlessly with the CG, like in the case of our villain Boris, and his little symbiotic pet ‘Weasel’. Prosthetics and CG mesh together here to create a pretty cool baddie.

Speaking of which; Kudos must go to Flight Of The Conchords star Jemaine Clement as Boris. His prosthetics were quite extreme, and it took me the entire pre-title sequence to figure out who that voice actually belonged to, and then ‘Albi, the racist dragon’ (look it up), popped into my head and it all clicked in to place. Clement delivers a very good balance of genuinely funny dialogue and delivery, with a believably intimidating presence. Not a bad trick for the usually gentle, bespectacled Kiwi.

As good as Clement is, without a shadow of a doubt my ‘man of the match’ is Josh Brolin’s amazing performance as the young K. Brolin effortlessly delivers the nuance and mannerism of Jone’s K, but does it without parody or imitation. His K is of course younger, less burned, and not so jaded about his life and work. He has a vibrancy and potency lacking in the old curmudgeon we know and love. Yet, when Brolin is onscreen, it is undoubtedly K we are watching, there is never any doubt in his performance, and we go with it completely. He holds his end up so well in fact, we forget that Tommy Lee Jone’s actual screen time is so massively reduced. I can’t remember a better example of this kind of casting, and for me; Brolin’s performance adds a premium value to what would already be a good movie. He’s a 27% percenter most definitely.

Naturally, Messrs Smith and Jones relax back in to their characters like slipping on a pair of comfortable slippers, except this time there’s more to their relationship than before. Things get a little more nuanced right from the off, and with the arrival of the movie’s denouement; both men bring a degree of subtlety and heart to the roles that is quite unexpected, and if you’re in the mood for it, rather nice.

For me, this movie does for MiB something of what Rocky Balboa did for Stallone’s franchise. It heals the wounds and disappointment wrought on it by the previous effort, and in this case, reopens the possibility of MiB becoming a going concern again.

It’s not perfect, and I probably could have done without Emma Thompson’s contribution entirely, but on balance MiB3 acquits itself really rather well. If they never do another one, I will remember the entire trilogy much more fondly as a result of this instalment, and would gladly watch it again.

The Blu-Ray package is worthwhile, although there will also be a more expensive 3D Blu+2D Blu+UV Edition hitting the shelves as well as this one. In true ‘cynical rip off’ style (first seen with the recent 3D edition of Prometheus), this package will also include a few more bonus extras not seen here, as an incentive for folks to lay out the extra money on it, even if they do not have a 3D home setup. I find this a bit mean, and something only a marketing type could or would conjure up.

Well will you look at that, I managed to get a little bit of review commentary in there after all!

Movie – 4 stars

Extras – 3 stars

Ben Pegley