Trailer Tracking: ‘Battleship’ ‘Men in Black III,’ ‘Frankenweenie’

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

Movie: “Men in Black III”

Best Parts of the Trailer: Josh Brolin’s Tommy Lee Jones impression is AMAZING; the retro production design in the old-school MIB offices; Bill Hader!

Worst Parts of the Trailer: None of the jokes land as hard as they probably should; certain parts seem less like “callbacks” and more like “recycled material”

OUR TAKE: I am a slightly unusual film geek, in that I really enjoyed both of the previous “Men in Black” movies. While people generally liked the first “MIB” and loathed the second, I find them both to be very affable, very rewatchable mainstream capers. There’s nothing edgy or groundbreaking about the “MIB” films, but there’s nothing wrong with that. They’re all about low-key riffing on sci-fi concepts, Barry Sonnenfeld’s slightly bent sense of humor, and the fantastic, note-perfect chemistry between Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. I honestly have a hard time thinking of two other big-name actors who had such a successful (and unexpected) on-screen rapport. (If you want to see the opposite of the Smith-Jones chemistry, watch the dead-eyed, non-existent bond between Smith and Kevin Kline in “Wild Wild West.”)

Men in Black III Photo credit: DreamWorks

The new “Men in Black III” trailer promises an equal mixture of new and familiar elements in this next trip into the “MIB” universe, and the result is a fairly balanced helping of hits and misses. While I thought the biggest downside to “Men in Black III” was going to be the limited screen time of Tommy Lee Jones – particularly since his chemistry with Smith is literally the most crucial element of the previous “MIB” films – I have to say that Josh Brolin, playing a young Jones in the past, makes a BIG impression in this trailer. His take on Jones’ deathly cool demeanor is dead-on perfect and NONE of the big Will Smith gags in the preview are half as funny as Brolin giving a clipped, deadpan “All right.” And, while Brolin is definitely the trailer’s all-star, to be fair, there are two HUGE outstanding questions about his role in “MIB III” – 1). Will he be able to make his Agent J into more than just a celebrity impression? and 2). Will he be able to replicate Jones’ chemistry with Will Smith? THAT is the most obvious potential Achilles Heel of “MIB III”. This is a franchise that, in the past, has been completely driven by the chemistry of its two leads. Brolin looks killer in the trailer, but, if he and Smith don’t gel, the movie is doomed.

As for the rest of the trailer, there’s some good and some bad. A lot of time is spent celebrating the franchise’s old reliable jokes – “Hey, it’s the de-neuralizer! Hey, it’s Tony Shaloub! Hey, it’s MIB Joke #348!” – but I think, to Sonnenfeld’s credit, the trailer does introduce some interesting new elements. First, there’s Brolin’s “Young Agent J”, and then there’s the whole time-travel murder mystery conceit, which, on its surface, sounds like a much more interesting plot than “MIB II”’s “missing princess” caper. While, as I mentioned, most of Will Smith’s jokes really floundered for me in this trailer, I do like how the new story elements introduce a whole new look to the franchise. “MIB II” looked EXACTLY like “MIB I” on a visual level. However, the whole time travel aspect introduces a lot of new visual texture to the “MIB world” – Will Smith jumping off the skyscraper to time jump, the retro “Mad Men” MIB offices, the classic New York scenery… even the scene where Brolin hands Smith an actual old-school revolver instead of the standard “space-gun” felt fun and new-ish in the context of “MIB.”

Does it look like the laugh-out-loud CGI comedy blockbuster of the year? No. (Particularly not with all the rumors of script problems and rewriting on the set.) But it does look like a solid, non-obnoxious sci-fi comedy and we just don’t have enough of those lately. Color me skeptically optimistic.

TRAILER OUTLOOK: Brolin gets the MVP trophy and upgrades my interest level from wary to interested.