Men in Black III

The third time to anything is always a charm, isn't it? Well, I thought so when it came toMIB³. We learned a lot about the past, the present and the future in the latest installment, and why these cherishable characters are the way they are to begin with.

First, let's start with Special Agent J (Will Smith). We were first introduced to the wise cracking, charismatic, NYPD street cop in 1997, who later joined forces with Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), the man that recruited him in a secret organization that polices extraterrestrial affairs on Earth.

Agent K and J eventually became partners who gradually become close and also best friends. Agent J looked up to Agent K as a father figure because he had no one else, in the previous two movies, Agent J always referred to his father absences as "not being around" or "was never there" he assumed his father just left his family for one reason, but we later find out that Agent K's past actions affected Agent J's future in more ways than one.

MIB³ kicked off with one of Agent K's alien criminals, Boris the Animal, coming back and taking revenge for what Agent K did to him in the year 1969 - which ended with Boris losing an arm which Agent K shot off. Boris time-traveled and killed the young Agent K, played by Josh Brolin, altering a timeline of events and people who Agent K was close with. From the very beginning, Agent K never held a smile, there was no life to him; he seemed burned out from the first time we met him, but something kept him around as long as he did. Throughout MIB³ Agent J asks Agent K, "What happened to you, man?" because someone who was that stern or couldn't crack a smile in life, something had to be wrong or traumatizing enough to have happened in their past. There was a secret so heartbreaking, Agent K held from Agent J and when it was finally discovered toward the end of the movie, that awe inspiring, this was the moment we've been waiting for goes off in our brains, as simply everything else started to make sense.

But, before the future had to be resolved, something in the past that revolved Agent K had to be fixed, so he went back in time to the year 1969 and changed the course of his own history - for guilt or uncertainty. Agent J headed to MIB headquarters the next day not realizing his future was changed as well with that one simple act from Agent K. Agent J was the only person who remembered Agent K, who was said to have been dead for forty years, but Agent J remembered him perfectly. So, he risks his own life to save his partner's life from Boris the Animal, as a friendly nobody, named Griffin (Michael Stuhlbrag) helped him along the way.

I highly enjoyed watching this film; it brought my childhood all over again. The representation of new comer, Josh Brolin, as young Agent K was the best, and for once there was something special about Agent K on screen that didn't seem dull or out of place. Josh Brolin gave Agent K life that was highly missed from the previous films, and my most favorite character to date in the series. Questions are fully answered as chapters are finally complete. MIB³ brings the laughs and understandings to such a loved franchise of our generation.