'Men in Black III' gets a teaser trailer (VIDEO)

'Men in Black III' has had production troubles, but the new trailer gives viewers a look at new cast members Emma Thompson and Josh Brolin.

Columbia Pictures officially kicked off the marketing blitz for its Summer 2012 3D sequel, Men in Black III, with a pair of letter-based posters that featured the familiar silhouettes of Agent J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones). The studio continues its efforts today, with the release of an official teaser trailer for the sci-fi action/comedy threequel.

If you’ve been following the third MIB movie’s progress, then you know the film has encountered its fair share of production woes, including a drawn-out filming delay due to substantial script reworking, which eventually required an intervention by blockbuster writer David Koepp. Will the final product prove to be worth all that trouble?

Men in Black III sees J forced to time-travel (or, rather, time-jump… literally) back to the 1960s, when a trouble-making alien disrupts the timeline and kills the younger version of K (Josh Brolin) – an act that not only affects the future of the MIB organization, but the very existence of humankind. Beyond that, it’s difficult to say what other major plot points present in Etan Cohen’s original screenplay draft (see: our Men in Black III script review) remain in tact, given the numerous rewrites it has undergone, by this point.

That in mind, check out the official Men in Black III teaser trailer:

All things considered, this is a pretty basic (if not especially effective) teaser trailer. We’re given a brief reminder of just what the Men in Black spend their time doing, Smith resorting to his trademark wiseacre shtick, glances at some of the film’s unusual extraterrestrials, an introduction to cast newcomer Emma Thompson, a quick look at one of the film’s 3D action set pieces (ie. J leaping off the Chrysler Building) and an even briefer glance at the movie’s actual plot. That’s all informative enough, but not so much intriguing or attention-grabbing.

By far, the “money shot” here is the ending, where we get out first look at Brolin as a youthful Agent K. The actor very much nails Jones’ deadpan inflection and facial mannerisms; hopefully, he’ll be able to sustain that act throughout a good portion of the MIB threequel.

A lot of people are finding it hard to muster much enthusiasm for Men in Black III and with good reason; not only is Men in Black II generally considered a pretty subpar sequel, that movie also came out all the way back in 2002. It doesn’t help that the time travel plot setup for the third MIB movie is somewhat reminiscent of the “alternate reality” angle in the fourth Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After; the latter franchise didn’t exactly benefit greatly from using that sitcom-style narrative approach and adding 3D to the mix, so it’s difficult to suspect the MIB series will manage to do otherwise…

We will see how it all turns out when Men in Black III arrives in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D theaters around the U.S. on May 25th, 2012.

Sandy Schaefer blogs at Screen Rant.