Men in Black III: best!!

the Poster:

the Plot:

Boris' girlfriend arrives for conjugal visit

Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement), last surviving member of the predatory Boglodyte race, escapes from the inescapable LunarMax prison on Earth's moon intent on going back in time to kill Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), who on July 16 1969, caused the loss of one of Boris' arms and arrested him.

On Earth, K learns of the escape after investigating a spaceship crash in the New York City streets and a Chinese restaurant teeming with alien life.

While K won't reveal any details to Agent J (Will Smith), he confesses his regret at not having killed Boris in 1969.

Late that night when the two agents are in their respective apartments, K calls J seemingly to tell all but remains silent and J hangs up on him. K then makes preparation for an ambush and sets to wait when all traces of him and his apartment disappear.

The next morning J goes to talk with K and discovers the world is different. At MIB headquarters, J learns that all other MIB personnel remember K as having been killed in action in the year 1969.
 
Agent O (Emma Thompson), the new Chief after Z's passing, deduces from J's insistence of his reality and knowledge of details about Agent K that a fracture has occurred in the space-time continuum.

She deduces Boris time-jumped to 1969 – knowledge of time-travel having been restricted to prevent such an occurrence – and killed K, resulting in a different future reality and an imminent Boglodyte invasion of Earth, now vulnerable due to the absence of the protective ArcNet which, in J's version of reality, K had installed in 1969.

Through electronics-shop owner Jeffrey Price (Michael Chernus), J acquires the same time-jump mechanism as Boris, but his query about how he can remember K when nobody else can merely results in Jeffrey informing him that he must have 'been there'. As the doomed Earth is being invaded, J jumps off the Chrysler Building to reach time-travel velocity and arrives in 1969 the day before Boris is supposed to kill K.

With some inevitable challenges upon his arrival – including his lack of resources and his skin colour – J goes to Coney Island to intercept Boris while he is there to commit a historically recorded murder but a 29-year-old Agent K interrupts and arrests J.

the young Agent K and Agent O (Alice Eve)

there were hints that Agent O and Agent K have a thing for each other

 
After fruitless questioning at MIB headquarters because J had been advised not to interact with the young Agent, K has J placed inside a large Neuralyzer.

At the last second, after J confesses the truth of his mission, K aborts the procedure.

As a wary team, they follow clues of Boris' trail to a bowling alley then to Andy Warhol's Factory, where they meet the prescient alien Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg), who occupies 5-dimensions and possesses the ArcNet.

Griffin tells them the Boglodytes destroyed his planet, and that he does not wish the Earth to suffer the same fate. Griffin then warns the two agents of Boris' impending arrival with the intent to kill him and leaves just before Boris arrives. Agent K narrowly escapes his own demise at the hands of Boris.

The elder Boris arrives, meeting up with his younger self and both agree to get the ArcNet and kill K so that the invasion will be imminent.

The Agents later locate Griffin at Shea Stadium, where he gives them the ArcNet and instructs K that it must be placed onto the Apollo 11 lunar rocket launch occurring in less than six hours in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Boris arrives and snatches Griffin and the Agents pursue to rescue him from a certain fate.

Upon arriving at Cape Canaveral, the agents and Griffin are arrested by military police. A colonel, however, allows them to continue their mission after Griffin uses his precognitive power to show the colonel how important the agents are.

At the launch pad, J and K confront both the 1969 and 2012 incarnations of Boris and the battle ensues on the rocket scaffolding as the launch counts down. The elder Boris impales J with his spikes before they both fall off the pad; however, J uses the time-jump to travel back to the beginning of the fight and avoid the spikes before pushing the elder Boris off the scaffolding, falling to the pad below.

Meanwhile, as K battles the younger Boris, he disconnects a hose causing it to spray liquid hydrogen on Boris' left arm, freezing it and causing it to shatter. K then plants the ArcNet on the top of the rocket in the last seconds before blastoff. The elder Boris is incinerated to death in the blastoff and the protective shield deploys as the rocket leaves Earth's atmosphere.

The Colonel congratulates K as he returns from the launch pad. As J watches from the distance, the younger Boris surprises them and kills the Colonel. The younger Boris tries to goad K into arresting him, but the junior agent instead shoots the young Boris this time, killing him.

A young boy named James exits a military vehicle looking for his father, who happens to be the Colonel. He pulls out a pocket watch revealed earlier to have been passed down to Agent J by his father, and J realizes that the young boy is actually his younger self (explaining Jeffrey's revelation that he was there; he was present when Boris altered history by killing K).

Unwilling to reveal his father's death, K neuralyzes James, telling him his father is a hero. J then realizes why K wouldn't tell him about why he regretted arresting Boris in the first place.
 

With the timeline restored, J returns to the present day, where he meets his partner at a diner. There, he shows K his father's pocket watch and thanks him, mentioning that he might now know more secrets than K does.

As they leave the diner, Griffin, a few seats away, tells the viewers all is well with the world, except for an imminent asteroid impact on Earth if this is the timeline where K forgot to leave a tip. K returns to leave his tip, however, and the asteroid is shown colliding with an orbiting satellite instead.


the Review:
the third installment of Men In Black premise surely didn't disappoint. i think the best about the movie was the uncanny resemblance of Josh Brolin portraying the young Agent K, the elder being the ever unsmiling agent, Tommy Lee Jones.

the chemistry between Will Smith with either Josh Brolin or TLJ is apparent. though i do admit, were i in TLJ's shoes, handling the ever talkative and emotive Agent J, maybe dah lama I cepuk dia tau.. BISING!

anyway, wouldn't mind if Men in Black continues its run :)

Captain America: the First Avenger

the Poster:

the Trailer:



the Plot:
In the present day, scientists in the Arctic uncover a circular object with a red, white and blue motif.

In March 1942, Nazi officer Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) and his men invade Tønsberg, Norway, to steal a mysterious Tesseract possessing untold powers. Meanwhile, in New York City, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is rejected for World War II military duty because of various health and physical issues. While attending an exhibition of future technologies with his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Rogers again attempts to enlist. Overhearing Rogers' conversation with Barnes about wanting to help in the war, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci) allows Rogers to enlist. He is recruited as part of a "super-soldier" experiment under Erskine, Colonel Chester Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), and British agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). Phillips is unconvinced by Erskine's claims that Rogers is the right person for the procedure, but relents after seeing Rogers commit an act of self-sacrificing bravery. The night before the treatment, Erskine reveals to Rogers that Schmidt underwent an imperfect version of the procedure and suffered side-effects.

Back in Europe, Schmidt and Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) successfully harness the energies of the Tesseract, intending to use the power to fuel Zola's inventions. Schmidt, having discovered Erskine's location, dispatches an assassin to kill him. In America, Erskine subjects Rogers to the super-soldier treatment, injecting him with a special serum and dosing him with "vita-rays". After Rogers emerges from the experiment taller and more muscular, one of the attendees kills Erskine, revealing himself to be Schmidt's assassin, Heinz Kruger (Richard Armitage). Rogers pursues and captures Kruger, but the assassin commits suicide by cyanide capsule before he can be interrogated.

With Erskine dead and the super-soldier formula lost, U.S. Senator Brandt (Michael Brandon) has Rogers tour the nation in a colorful costume as "Captain America" to promote war bonds, rather than allow scientists to study him and attempt to rediscover Erskine's formula. In 1943, while on tour in Italy performing for active servicemen, Rogers learns that Barnes' unit was lost in a battle against Schmidt's forces. Refusing to believe that Barnes is dead, Rogers has Carter and Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) fly him behind enemy lines to mount a solo rescue attempt. Rogers infiltrates the fortress of Schmidt's HYDRA organization, freeing Barnes and the other captured soldiers. Rogers confronts Schmidt, who reveals his face to be a mask, removing it to display the red, skull-like face that earned him the sobriquet "the Red Skull." Schmidt escapes and Rogers returns to base with the freed soldiers.

Rogers recruits Barnes, Dum Dum Dugan (Neal McDonough), Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), Jim Morita (Kenneth Choi), James Montgomery Falsworth (J. J. Feild), and Jacques Dernier (Bruno Ricci) to attack the other known HYDRA bases. Stark outfits Rogers with advanced equipment, in particular a circular shield made of vibranium, a rare, near-indestructible metal. Rogers and his team successfully sabotage various HYDRA operations. The team later assaults a train carrying Zola. Zola is captured, but Barnes falls from the train to his apparent death.

Using information extracted from Zola, the final HYDRA stronghold is located and Rogers leads an attack to stop Schmidt from using weapons of mass destruction on American cities. Rogers clambers aboard Schmidt's aircraft as it takes off. During the subsequent fight, the Tesseract's container is damaged. Schmidt physically handles the Tesseract, causing him to dissolve in a bright light. The Tesseract falls to the floor, burning through the plane and falling to Earth. Seeing no way to land the plane without the risk of detonating its weapons, Rogers crashes it in the Arctic. Stark later recovers the Tesseract from the ocean floor, but is unable to locate Rogers or the aircraft.

Rogers awakens in a 1940s-style hospital room. Deducing from an anachronistic radio broadcast that something is wrong, he flees outside into what is revealed to be present-day Times Square, where Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tells him he has been "asleep" for nearly 70 years.


the Riviu:
this is so not my cup of tea! and thank goodness that i'm not that much of a tea people.

i know that some people is raving about this film but to me, so many weak points. how can a man's bones be elongated by a scientifically made serum? i mean, if it's giving muscles and brawns, that i can accept. this one, nope.

and what is this Tasseract thingy? not much is told of it, and how it interact with any surface. how can it be contained by a simple box and then transfered into lamp-like container before burning holes of the so-called state of art aircraft? and then easily handled by the hands of Schmidt and later on by Howard Stark's under-the-sea equipment? arghhh..

and the chemistry between Peggy and the Captain America, too stunted. i'm wondering about her position in all of this setup. she was seen recruiting, training and then visiting Captain America near the enemy lines.

and then during the assault at Hydra's last base, she stuck out like a sore thumb, being the only woman in the frontlines. to think her as the sole woman accepted in the army is not a commendation but rather a degrading point. one, just one. it's a very, very man's world. though the scene where she emotionlessly opening fire on Cap's shield, that's pure gumption :) yay to Women's Power !

this movie has Howard Stark playing some important roles alongside Peggy. he was shown to be a flamboyant ladies man. but his presence is not that, how to say it, attention-commanding? the last time the world saw Mr Stark senior is in the Iron Man 2 where he was portrayed to be a very harsh father. serious. driven. Mr Cooper's presentation of him that somehow tries to mimic Robert Downey Jr's mannerism as Tony Stark, well, fell flat, and trodden. sorry Mr Cooper, it just felt wrong.

as for the bad guys, the only thing i find myself respecting is the Heinz Kruger's suicide, some sort of an art, you know. the teeth gnashing, the frothing mouth :giggles:

i mean, the Red Skull keeps repeating the power the gods and all that mulch but why did he keep running away when confronted? hello! you've got a blasting-on-the-spot gun right? why don't you and your faceless army just move forward and blast everything away? tak paham aku. the American soldiers and the selected few who made into Caps' squad were just using conventional guns and snipers. so why are you so chicken-ish? no use of having that Tasseract thingy la gitu. and no power of the gods :tongue struck out:

and it's kinda funny when the prisoners of war (PoW) came out from the cages so healthy and brawnish, ready to rumble in the HYDRA's tanks. baiknya la HYDRA organisation ni bagi diorang makan dan tak dera-dera semua. even the ones who were at the Allies camp earlier look much beaten and sorrier than that lot. and these PoW were left unsupervised somewhat at the HYDRA camp and managed to escape, all 400 of them. which is kinda stupid.

and what is stupider, you may ask, is the location of the weaponry base and factories are displayed for everyone to see. hello, it's not a secret ek? sape2 je bleh tahu.

and when the locations are revealed with Cap's waging war on each base one by one, don't they heighten the security nor relocate their bases to somewhere else? no. they have to wait for Captain America to come barging in and destroy their place.

haiyoh.

true enough, i'm not that impressed. only the fact that Cap's shield with its dents and whatnots is impressive to me. i like that fact. a simple fact to show that Cap is vulnerable and simply a human being.

of course, woman may salivate of the yummy display of Cap's skin, and i really appreciate that once revealed to us the effect of the serum on Steve, he wore a white shirt over the bare skin and pursued the assassin in high speed motion. so no excessive drool is produced.

ya, i can attest to the fact that Cap is really a decent man and deserves my respect apart from his lean and fit physicality. yup he sure does :grins:


the Pix: