It’s been 15 years now since Men in Black came out and, while 2002’s sequel might have made you wish for an MIB standard issue Neuralyzer to use on yourself, there were high hopes that this belated third instalment – Smith’s first lead role since 2008 – would be able to bring both the franchise and its star back to the fore.

Well, MIB3 may not quite reach the heights of the original, but it does a much better job than the last effort.

The plot – thankfully – veers away from the formula set by the first two movies, whereby the MIB and an alien would simply chase a MacGuffin around for 90 minutes, and instead we have psychotic alien Boris the Animal escaping from an alien prison on the moon (the sort of gleefully silly flourish that this franchise revels in), and going back in time to kill Tommy Lee Jones’ Agent K in 1969. It turns out that Agent K is somewhat integral to the survival of Earth, so Smith’s Agent J must go back in time to prevent the death of his partner’s younger self.

The plot is the kind of convoluted time-travel nonsense that you just have to go along with, and while the pacing is somewhat off, the ‘60s setting does provide some fun moments (Bill Hader’s cameo revealing Andy Warhol to be an undercover agent desperate to stop with the artiste routine is particularly enjoyable).

Where Lara Flynn Boyle proved a lightweight villain in MIB2, Boris – played by an unrecognisable Jermaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords – is a much more threatening prospect; the small, spindly alien that lives in his hand, allowing him to shoot deadly shards of bone at people, marking him out as a unique and scary villain. (And Jermaine thankfully resists the urge to break out into song!)

Other additions to the cast include an underused Emma Thompson as new head of the MIB, Agent O, and Michael Stuhlbarg as an alien from the 5th dimension. The real star, however, is Josh Brolin as the younger Agent K. Brolin’s take on Jones’ established character is astonishing; from the voice, to the mannerisms, to the way he carries himself; the likeness is uncanny. You will genuinely forget that you’re watching a different actor play the role.

As for Smith, he’s okay, but suffers from the simple fact that his character always worked better as the wide-eyed new boy, baffled by this strange world, rather than a veteran who’s now seen it all.

Danny Elfman’s score reminds you why it was so iconic back in 1997, while the CGI – as you would expect – is much improved from the previous instalments, but still retains director Barry Sonnenfeld’s pleasingly cartoonish aesthetic. (Although the 1969 gyroscopic motorcycles that the MIB use are hilariously, and presumably – hopefully! – unintentionally reminiscent of Mr. Garrison’s wildly inappropriate creation from the South Park episode The Entity. If you know the episode in question, you won’t be able to take those scenes seriously.)

A particular stand-out is the time-travel effect, which is marvellously done, as Agent J falls off a building and time shifts around him, allowing him to fall alongside suicidal Wall Street bankers in the ‘20s, between fighting bi-planes in the ‘40s and the snapping jaws of hungry dinosaurs! It’s wonderfully realised, and it’s a gimmick they probably could have run with further.

Moments like that – fuelled by the fantastic, filled with charm and humour – were the first film’s stock in trade, and while there are smatterings of the old magic here, Sonnenfeld and writer Etan Cohen still can’t quite recapture the lightning in a bottle of that first film.

The individual moments work (an alien mobster – whose head detaches to become a bowling ball – continuing to gesture like a stereotypical Italian-American gangster in the background, is hilarious), but somehow things never quite manage to flow into a satisfying whole. The film taken at large somehow fails to grab you.

But the action is fun, while the climax at Cape Canaveral is both exciting and clever. Sadly, the main problem is that MIB3 simply needed to be funnier if it was going to hold its own against the might of Avengers Assemble in 2012’s crowded summer schedule.

Still, while it may not be a classic, Men in Black 3 is certainly entertaining enough to restore some good will to the franchise.

Released in UK cinemas on Friday 25th May 2012 by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

> Buy the Men In Black I & II DVD boxset on Amazon.

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