The Racked Focus Review: Men in Black 3 (2012)

The day was May 27, 2012.  Maxwell Haddad released a review on The Racked Focus of an anticipated, though maybe not highly, return to film by Will Smith.  The movie was Men in Black 3, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.  Also in the movie were Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin, among other actors that you might notice upon seeing them.  How well was the review written?  Let’s dive in and get a taste of it.

Maxwell, as per usual, covered the actors, director, and writer relatively early in the review.  This is an interesting thing that he does in the reviews.  It allows the writing to move beyond the surface level aspects of the film and delve into the deeper meaning.  The surface level aspects of the film are interesting in and of themselves, however, and some time is spent with one particular aspect of note: the effects.  Max describes the look of the movie as top notch and appropriately retro, thanks to Rick Baker.  It’s always nice to read a review artist’s praise of a movie effects artist’s work.  But the surface aspects of a film can only take up so much space in a review and only have so much meaning.  The review must be taken to a deeper level.

The second level of the review is an inspection of Will Smith’s performance in which the young Smith meets the old Smith.  This has nothing to do with the time travel plot of the film, but rather the fact that Smith has not been in the Men in Black series for around ten years now.  His character has aged, but still holds onto many of the personality traits that audiences loved during the first two films.  Max excels in this portion of the review, highlighting the added maturity of the character.  He also makes not of the interaction between the character and his Men in Black partner.

To go deeper into Maxwell’s review, it can be seen that it works in three acts, very similar to the film that he is describing.  The first act, as he states it is in the movie, lacks some of the energy and wit of the rest of the review, if only because of how surface level it is pertaining to the movie.  It’s basically going through the people working on the movie and describing how good or bad they are.  The second act of the review gets deeper into the movie, and becomes much more enjoyable.  The way Max describes the added maturity to the J character, as shown through Smith’s acting, or the contrast between Agent K and Agent J, or even Agent K and his younger self help to create a more savory review.  The third act of the review comes in the final few sentences, when Mr. Haddad describes the emotional aspects and themes of the film, and brings the review to a close.  The review is arced like a film, albeit a tad bit truncated near the conclusion.  This may not have been an intentional blueprint to the review, but it shines through.

The review of Men in Black 3 written by Maxwell Haddad brings some light to the fine details of the film while also highlighting the more noticeable aspects of the film.  The signature use of language is in the review with words like curmudgeonly, juxtaposition, and bravado.  It feels like a Haddad review through and through.  Nobody writes a review like Maxwell Haddad.

Maxwell Haddad’s review of Men in Black 3 gets 3 ½ Josh Brolin impressions out of 5.