Will Smith (left) and Tommy Lee Jones star in Columbia Pictures’ MEN IN BLACK 3.

With the third installment in the Men In Black series opening in theatres today, the main question on everyone’s mind is sure to be “What? Why is there a third Men In Black 10 years after the second?”

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones are back, this time joining Josh Brolin as a young Agent K and Jemaine Clement as the time travelling villain, Boris The Animal. While many people might see this as another heatless Hollywood cash grab in a summer filled with movies about board games, superhero movies, and remakes, you can rest assured that director Barry Sonnenfeld has managed to make Men In Black 3 a movie that pleases fans and newcomers to the series alike.

The third movie in the Men In Black franchise is perhaps the most fun, playful, and colourful of all of them; while still containing enough good action and amazing alien creature design to impress even the most casual viewer. The concept — Agent J has to travel back in time to save the world as well as his partner — is a decent one that is helped by the impressive effects and cool concepts interspersed throughout the film.

The only thing that made relatively no sense, especially considering this movie was about time traveling aliens trying to destroy the world, was when, in one scene, the characters were casually talking to each other and out of no where Agent K called someone “a piece of shit.” Talk about uncalled for. It made no sense in context of anything and there was uncomfortable laughter coming from about one third of the theatre. But I digress….

While this movie could have easily added nothing new to the MIB formula and just given us a few aliens and some neuralyzer scenes, there is a lot in this movie that makes it worth seeing 10 years after the franchise was last relevant. Most notably is that of Flight Of The Conchords star Jemaine Clement’s amazing performance as the films villain. While it’s weird to see such a likeable guy play such a terrible person, Clement’s performance and the amazing makeup and effects work done is a highlight of the film.

Also in this film is Will Smith, the guy you may remember as the biggest star of all time a few years ago. Well, for some reason he stopped appearing in movies and decided that doing nothing would be a better use of his time. But now he’s back and it looks like this movie will kick off what is sure to be another great wave of films by Smith.

If you’ve never seen a Men In Black movie before, there is still enough in this film to like to warrant seeing it. All you have to know is that there are these Men In Black, literally, and they work with good aliens and fight bad aliens. However, if you have seen the previous movies in the Men In Black franchise, there are plenty of callbacks and references to the previous movie, all while still adding a wealth of new material and exciting twists that add to the story of your favourite alien-ass-kicking Men In Black.

And, since this is a Sony movie, MIB 3 is still worth seeing even if you absolutely hate the franchise. This is because the incredible trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man plays in front of the movie and you get to see just how good this film looks — especially in 3D. That right there is worth the price of admission alone.

[star v=4]