The film starts promisingly enough, introducing the villain, Boris the Animal (Flight of the Conchords' Jermaine Clement) in an escape from a lunar prison. At first glance Boris seems an appropriate villain who offers both weirdness and a sense of menace, but after the initial set-up Boris seems to fizzle out as a character apart from one or two moments (including an argument with himself) a by the finale totally fails to live up to his billing as a major threat.
Then there is the plot - which features Will Smith's J heading back in time to stop Boris killing off his partner, Tommy Lee Jones's K before they even met. The film keeps promising answers to questions such as why K is so grumpy and why only J can remember him in the present, without ever delivering satisfactory answers. Then the film commits the epic fail when it comes to time travel movies and finishes as a complete paradox loop whereby the ending totally negates the beginning which in turn negates everything else in the film including the ending, so none of it really works. That is bad plotting.
The other weakness of the film is Tommy Lee Jones, who seems far too old for this shit and clearly can't be bothered and even Smith seems tired and jaded in his company. This actually makes the films' biggest gamble of ditching Jones for most of its running time it's biggest success, as Josh Brolin playing the younger K gives a pitch perfect Tommy Lee Jones and is actually here far superior to the original. Smith appears to perk up when playing off him.
Elsewhere, Emma Thompson shows her comic skills as Agent O and Michael Stuhlbarg is good value as an alien who simultaneous sees many possible universes and timelines. There are also some good moments, such as Smith's speech after being pulled over by the police in the 60s. However, most doesn't hold up to too close an inspection.
Overall - 6/10 Entertaining in parts, but patchily so.
