3. A New Setting
The change of setting in Men In Black 3 was certainly the films saving grace. It was also possibly the saving grace of the franchise. It all comes down to the main problem that Ive cited from Men In Black 2. It wasnt original. It was just a poorly structured shadow of what came before. Men In Black 3, on the other hand, took us back in time and refreshed the formula. Now I doubt that this was the intended effect. I imagine the time travel plot device was more likely thrown in by an amateur writer looking for a cheap inciting incident. Its been done too many times to not a lot of effect. But that doesnt matter now because that cheap plot device actually did something important for the franchise. It showed audiences that the premise still had untapped potential. Unlike Men In Black 2, the new sequel had distinguishing features. A popular plot device that has been thrown around is the idea of Agents J and K travelling to an alien planet for one reason or another. While this does fascinate me a little, I get the feeling that it is a very bad direction to take the franchise. Firstly, I cant see any reason why the equivalent of planetary border patrol would need to travel into outer space whatsoever. Id prefer to see the protagonists track an alien threat somewhere outside of New York. A Men In Black film set in the country could be potentially hilarious. Or maybe a different city would be interesting. Los Angeles could be fun and there would be plenty of opportunities to mock the nature of celebrity with an alien investigation. Just not New York again. Weve seen Men In Black there twice. We dont need to see it again.