Here come the Men in Black… for the third time. This Friday marks the release of the third installment in the Men in Black film series. The first Men in Black hit theaters in the summer of 1997, the summer after Independence Day (or ID4) thus cementing Will Smith as a summer blockbuster star. The first movie was a huge hit, however it was a full five years until we got to see a follow up.
Men in Black II had done similar numbers in its opening weekend as the first film, but received a cooler reception. The second film felt more like a good extended episode of the Men in Black: The Series (an animated series that aired 4 seasons and picks up where the first movie left off) and less like the next chapter in a now classic Sci-Fi comedy. Also affecting the second film were changes that had to be made to the ending due to the tragic events that happened in New York in 2001. Also, casting Johnny Knoxville in the flick could be to blame…(I kid, I kid)
When rumors began in 2009 that there was going to be a third MIB movie and that Tommy Lee Jones would be replaced by Josh Brolin, eyebrows were certainly raised. Soon enough we learned that Tommy Lee Jones would in fact be in the movie along with Brolin and Smith. Clever casting had it that Brolin would be playing the young K (Tommy Lee Jones). Production time on MIB 3 was well over a year with a 6 month break for script re-writes. Re-writes can either be a very good or very bad thing. Barry Sonnenfeld is a great comedy director who will I hope make that the 10 year wait (I predict MIB 4 in 2029) worth it! Both previous films had undergone rewrites during production.
The MIB franchise has always played up the use of their ironic eyewear. Black sunglasses. MIB 3 will be a major release in 3-D; that being said, one might hope that like other 3-D releases, including a collector’s edition 3-D glasses would be a natural fit. Imagine some awesome collector’s edition of MIB 3-D glasses – well, there isn’t. So you are stuck wearing the same old 3-D glasses and it turns out that now there is a battle brewing before the movie’s release as to who will be paying for part of the cost of those glasses, Sony or certain theater chains.
Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, and Josh Brolin star in Men In Black 3 which is in theaters this Friday.
Image: Sony Pictures