After sprinting out of the blocks with The Hunger Games and running out of the stadium with Avengers Assemble (yup, it’s a marathon analogy today), we’re now well into the course and it’s time for part three of Twelve for 2012. It’s Saturday, and it’s the one with the time travel, multiple people and massive fish (I’m not even kidding. Watch the trailer, and you’ll see what I mean). Part three, Men in Black 3!
THE GOOD STUFF
I haven’t actually seen Men in Black 1 or 2, so like a couple of other movies on this list, I’ll be judging it on its own merits. The second trailer was really, really good, showing an interesting plotline, time travel, and uncannily good impressions of Tommy Lee Jones from Josh Brolin. It made me look forward to the movie a lot, which is something I couldn’t say for the first trailer.
I’ve heard that Men in Black 2 was awful, but it’s been ten years since that movie was released. Ten years is a long time. Ten years ago, Spider-Man was about to be released, The Lord of the Rings trilogy hadn’t finished, the co-stars of Harry Potter still looked really, really young, and no one had heard of the iPad. Maybe it’s time to forget the past. And if 3 is any good, then Men in Black 2 will fade into the past. Win win.
The long wait might just have heightened anticipation. After all, nostalgic people who want a taste of the Nineties again will turn up, plus all the Men in Black fans. And the marketing will bring in new viewers into the franchise. Like me.
The writers of Men in Black will have had a very long time to assess the faults of 2, and hopefully have released what went wrong, and will rectify it, while preserving what was good about the first. Or is that just blind optimism? Maybe it will do a ‘Spider-Man 3.’ Oh god, I hope not. If I had to summarize Spider-Man 3 in one word, it would be: Spidermanturnsintoanemoandisattackedbysandmanwhohasmutatedandthenspidermantearsofftheblacksuitanditdropsontoaguyturninghimintovenomwhospideytdefeatswiththehelpofhisfriendwhodies. You get my point.
THE BAD STUFF
Do we really need a threequel to a movie that was released fifteen years ago? Toy Story 3 did it, but then that’s Toy Story 3: the epitome of perfection. Digging an old franchise with a bad reputation out of the grave is bound to be risky, and there’s a large chance that Men in Black 3 will seal the franchise’s fate.
It’s a threequel. Unless the director’s name is Christopher Nolan (in which case a threequel is a really, really good thing), then a threequel will always be hit with cynicism by… uh… cynics. And just to name some threequels that Men in Black 3 is joining: Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, Batman Forever and X-Men: The Last Stand. That’s not exactly the pedigree of class. This cynicism could damage the box office profits.
The humour in the trailer looked good, but it might start to grate in a two-hour movie. There’s only so much smart-arse you can take.
Will it be good? I’m undecided, because unlike the previous two parts of this feature, the good and the bad are equal. But I’m in an optimistic mood, and the trailer looks great, so I’m going to say a tentative yes.
S#!T Talking Central