Men In Black III * * * ½

It is enticing to go see a movie when it first appears in the theater.  I caught the early Friday morning showing, which is discounted, of Men In Black III.   I am pretty pleased with it.  Roger Ebert likes the movie better than the original, although I am not ready to go that far.  He seems alone in that opinion.  

Adding time travel to the plot makes for a more interesting movie.  Also, Will Smith knows how to generate a persona that is just barely smart aleck enough give the movie some humor without overdoing it.

The movie seems to acknowledge that Tommy Lee Jones is getting too old to play the part of Agent K.  He even looked a little old ten years ago in Men In Black II.  What few scenes he does have in the movie he spends almost entirely sitting down.  His character is presumably 69 years old, although Tommy Lee Jones is only 65.  To get around the age issue, the Will Smith character, Agent J, travels back in time and meets a much younger Agent K, cleverly played by Josh Brolin.

I wouldn't mind a Men in Black IV, but think that it might be time for some new blood.  Maybe Agent J could take on a new partner.

This is the first Will Smith movie since the disappointing 2008 Seven Pounds (**).  The third installment in the Men in Black series has been a long time coming mainly because the second movie was not that well received.  I don't think that Men in Black II (***) is in any way a bad movie, although it is a little lightweight, but I think that it makes a good rental.