10 Surprisingly Good Movie Sequels NOBODY Saw Coming

The crushing disappointment of Men in Black II seemed to suggest that the original sci-fi action comedy was best left as a one-off. After all, not every great movie is built to be a franchise.

And the arguments against a third Men in Black further piled up in the years leading up to its release. 

First and foremost, many felt that Sony were foolish in taking an entire decade to get the threequel in front of audiences, and reports of a tricky production that apparently started filming without a finished script and later underwent pricey reshoots didn't much help.

MiB III seemed like one final cash-grab for all involved - not the genuinely creative and strangely emotional trip of a movie it ultimately proved itself to be. 

Though time travel is often a desperate magic trick an ailing franchise pulls out of the bag, in this case it worked quite splendidly to fill in Agent J's (Will Smith) backstory, and casting Josh Brolin as a younger Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) was nothing if not a genius move.

Hell, the film even made Paul Thomas Anderson cry. What better endorsement could you possibly want?