[easyazon-image align=”left” asin=”B005LAIHQS” locale=”us” height=”160″ src=”http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GFYs9jdhL._SL160_.jpg” width=”108″]What is it with Tommy Lee Jones and one armed men? Boris “the Animal”, the villain in [easyazon-link asin=”B005LAIHQS” locale=”us”]Men in Black 3[/easyazon-link], had his right arm blasted off in 1969 and spent the next forty years in a lunar prison plotting revenge against Agent K in particular, and the wholesale destruction of Earth in general. (Being from a race of aliens whose entire reason for existence is the consumption of other planets, this sort of anti-social behavior is almost to be expected, but the source of his existential rage is portrayed as being the loss of his arm.) Boris goes back in time to attempt to kill K before he loses his arm, and meets up with his younger Hell’s Angel self who can’t stop staring at his residual limb. Boris won’t put up with that, nor can he abide the appellation “the Animal”. We’d agree his treatment was dehumanizing, if he was actually human.
Of perhaps more interest is the character of Griffin, portrayed as a gentle eccentric capable of spouting off almost autistic levels of detail about the events unfolding around him. Griffin has lost his entire planet and civilization to Boris’ kind, but instead of becoming bitter he prepares a defense mechanism for his beloved Terran civilization. His ability to see infinite possibilities results in almost crippling indecision, yet occasionally he’ll react to the prospect of danger with childlike glee. Griffin well embodies the character type of the magical disabled person, better in tune with the mysteries of the universe than even the Men in Black, and is indeed referred to by them as a “unicorn”.