Barry Sonnenfeld returns after ten years in the director’s chair to direct the third installment to the Men in Black series, “Men in Black III.”  Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back as well as Agent J and Agent K.

I admit that as a fan of the first “Men in Black” film that came out in 1997, I was not looking forward to this third installment.  I honestly didn’t care for the second film and I felt that it had been too long for this film franchise to make a worthy sequel 15 years after the original but I still went into “MIB III” with an open mind.

The film opens when an evil extraterrestrial named Boris the Animal, played by Jemaine Clement escapes from a security prison on the Earth’s moon.  His plan is to travel back in time and kill the younger Agent K for shooting off his arm and imprisoning him for 40 years.

Agent K, played by Tommy Lee Jones and Agent J, played by Will Smith begin having partnership issues when Agent K doesn’t give Agent J all the information on the current situation with Boris the Animal.  Agent J attempts to find out the information he needs on the MIB computer but is denied access by the new head of MIB Agent O, played by Emma Thompson.

Boris succeeds in his mission in traveling back in time and killing Agent K.  Everyone else in the present day seems affected by the change in time except for Agent J who doesn’t understand why everyone in MIB is telling him that K has been dead since July 16, 1969.  Agent O figures out that it could be time travel.  J meets up with Jeffrey Price, played by Michael Chernus, who gives him the device to time jump into the past.

Once in the past J meets up with the younger Agent K played by Josh Brolin and attempt to stop Boris from 1969 as well as the future Boris from killing K.

All in all I must say that I was impressed with this film.  I didn’t like the idea of having time travel in a MIB movie but it actually worked.  I was entertained by the film and the storyline which seemed much better than the last MIB movie in 2002.  Brolin does an excellent job playing the younger Agent K.  I thought it was going to be a let down not having Jones in most of the film but you don’t mind because Brolin does such a great job playing younger K that you feel like that character is still there despite being a different actor.

I did see the movie in 3D and like most movies in 3D it is just better to see it in 2D.  The only scene that was cool in 3D was when Will Smith jumps off the Chrysler Building to travel back in time.

I was amazed by the emotional ending of the film yet pleased with it.  It takes MIB into a direction I didn’t think possible 15 years later but it was.

There is more that I would like to mention but I don’t want to give too much information and I encourage all who enjoyed the first MIB movie to go see this one.  It’s funny, entertaining and a well worth sequel to “Men in Black.”

I give this movie 4 out of 5 Top Hats.