Men in Black 3
What’s in the box.
Another straightforward narrative that critics mistakenly, or intentionally, dismissed as entertaining,
this is possibly the best of the three (the weakass ‘Dennis Rodman is an alien’ jokes of 1 do not hold up. See for yourself). Competing as it must with Mr. D’Onofrio’s unnominated performance from 1, MiB 3 has the beautifully affectless multiple time stream inhabiter Griffin (Mr. Michael Stuhlbarg), and the appropriately noxious Mr. Jermaine Clement, believably arguing with his future and past selves. Beautiful practical and digital effects which culminate (not temporally, since it happens at the beginning, but the use of the word ‘culminate’ is technically correct for a time travel film), that culminate in the best time jump sequence ever. Considering how many times time travel has been shown (see interfilm tension), this is no tiny feat. It deserves the award for Best Demonstration of the Way in Which Critics Are Too Embarrassed To Actually Like Something Good. Award.
Should have mentioned, the what’s in the box refers to using what you’ve got, in this case time-travel gizmos, to resolve the story. This is in contrast to the typical bag of screenwriter’s tricks marked, ‘The bad guy, having done everything intelligently up to this point, forgets the one thing he was trying to do in the first place and dies.’ It’s a big bag, but everything in it is surprisingly similar. And yes, a bag is different than a box. It’s easier to carry for example.