MovieChat Forums > Men in Black³ (2012) Discussion > Why so little screen time for TLJ?

Why so little screen time for TLJ?

posted 10 years ago by wonderbrat99
2 replies | jump to latest

I've never really seen an answer to this question anywhere... forgive me if it's already been answered here and I just missed it.

Aside from the obvious "that's how the script was written," why would they write the script in a way that would give Tommy Lee Jones, one of the two main stars of the freaking series, for crying out loud, so little screen time?

I can't help thinking there was a reason - did he not want more screen time? Did they not want to give him more?

I'd be curious to know if he or anyone associated with the movie ever gave an answer to that question.

If it wasn't his idea, don't you think he would have been a bit peeved by it?

These are the things that keep me up late at night. That, and how he just got sooooooooo scary looking over time. Dude is a great actor but is getting pretty darn hard to look at. Although that is admittedly a tangent.

[–] virgiltx 10 years ago

Actually it's a considerable amount of screen time for a character who was written out in the first installment.
He blips out at 24.5 minutes into the movie, and returns with 10 minutes remaining. That's about 35 minutes of a 98 minute movie (up to the credits).

He had a lot of lines and screen time in the segments he was in. I think it was a case of how good the material was in the 1969 segment. That would have been the most important factor. And it was great stuff. I doubt that such great stuff was just the result of an ulterior motive to write someone out.

And if they wanted to write him out of the franchise, I think they'd have killed him off.

____________________
The story is king.

[–] granitodiaz 10 years ago

They don't want to depress the audience

The stupid have one thing in common.They alter the facts to fit their views not the other way