Gemini Man review

GEMINI MAN:

ANG LEE’S LATEST HAS A UNIQUE PREMISE AND SOME IMPRESSIVE ACTION SEQUENCES AS WELL AS A STRONG PERFORMANCE BY WILL SMITH BUT IS A SLOG TO GET THROUGH! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Will Smith and Will Smith in Gemini Man

            A hitman is targeted by a younger clone of himself while on the run in Gemini Man, the latest film directed by Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi) and starring Will Smith (Independence Day, Men in Black trilogy, Aladdin (2019)). This film has a very interesting production history dating all the way back to 1997 under Sony Pictures and Disney with Tony Scott originally attached to the direct and frontrunners for the main character included Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the technology to de-age a celebrity just wasn’t there yet so the project was put on hold for many years.

            Now after several breakthroughs in filmmaking over the years even with Lee’s very own Life of Pi pushing the boundaries of visual effects, Gemini Man can finally see the light of day with Lee directing and Paramount and Skydance distributing the film. I was interested in the movie when I first saw the trailer, it kind of reminded me of Looper minus the time-travel plot and with a Blade Runner Replicant of a young Will Smith, and it has Ang Lee directing who is a fantastic director and knows how to make visually striking movies. 

Sure, not all of his movies are winners like his 2003 film adaptation of the Hulk or Taking Woodstock, but films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, and Life of Pi exemplify the full capabilities of this man as a director from both visual and narrative perspectives. So, I got my ticket (I saw it High Frame Rate 3D by the way), put my 3D glasses on, and…oh boy, where do I begin here?

I still stand that Gemini Man has an interesting premise and the action sequences and visual effects are undeniably impressive and Will Smith is giving it his all. Unfortunately, the film never lives up to its full potential and everything gets bogged down by a weak, poorly written narrative and sluggish pacing, if you thought Hulk (2003) was dull take a look at this thing here. 

The film follows an elite assassin known as Henry Brogan (Smith) who is suddenly targeted by a mysterious young operative from an organization called GEMINI who seemingly can predict his every move. And why is that you may ask? Because he’s a younger clone of Henry simply named Junior (Also played by Smith) who was created to “retire” Henry and take his place. 

Henry partners up with a hitwoman named Danny Zakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead-Live Free or Die Hard, Scott Pilgrim VS the World, 10 Cloverfield Lane) and a colleague of theirs named Baron (Benedict Wong-Marco Polo, The Martian, Marvel Cinematic Universe) to stop Junior and the ruthless leader of GEMINI Clayton “Clay” Varris (Clive Owen-Sin City, Children of Men, Shoot ‘Em Up) and shut the GEMINI organization down forever.

The film also stars Linda Emond (Stop-Loss, Julie & Julia, The Big Sick) as Janet Lassiter, Douglas Hodge (Vanity Fair, Robin Hood (2010), Joker) as Jack Willis, Ilia Volok (Air Force One, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Last Ship) as Yuri Kovacs, E.J. Bonilla (Revenge, Four, Unforgettable) as Marino, and Björn Freiberg (Son of Saul, The Martian) as Keller.

Overall, Gemini Man has a unique premise and features a talented cast as well as some groundbreaking visual effects, alas they are all wasted by a terrible script (and I mean terrible) and sluggish pacing. Aside from the action sequences which are very impressive with the highlight being the motorcycle chase that ultimately ends in absurdity with young Will Smith using it as a giant boxing glove, the movie as a whole is just dull with an interesting concept not fully realized.

Almost half of this movie consist of Smith, Winstead, and Wong talking to each other and spewing out exposition one after another and it just isn’t that interesting, the film manages to make even conversations about creating a perfect clone of someone boring. Fortunately, Wong is able to at least throw in a funny line once in a while to show there is some humanity to this movie. 

The visual effects specifically on de-aging Will Smith are very impressive…at times, like during a scene where both Smiths are fighting each other either at night or in an underground cave and you can see the sweat on the young Will Smith’s face, it looks amazing there and I almost forgot I was looking at a CGI Will Smith from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. But other times like during the day, it looks laughably bad, Spawn movie Satan bad. 

The plot is every recycled spy movie plot, you know the ones where the agent is being hunted by another agent from the same organization that once trained said agent. Even the idea of being hunted by yourself is nothing new, the 2012 sci-fi film Looper had a similar plot about a man being hunted by his future-self except it was through time-travel and that movie was actually good whereas Gemini Man made me want to fall asleep, but at least the HFR 3D was utilized a little better here than in The Hobbit trilogy and made the movie look a little more interesting, though I see no point in the 3D aside from ONE shootout scene where things are flying at the screen.

It’s a shame because a lot of good people worked on it, Ang Lee who I’ve mentioned before is usually a brilliant director, Will Smith is charming and the saving grace of the movie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a heavily underrated actress who has proven herself in films like Scott Pilgrim and 10 Cloverfield Lane, and Benedict Wong has a unique sense of humor who is able to make an impression even in a small supporting role. But when the material given to them is a mishmash of garbage constantly re-written by different writers for decades, they’re talents are wasted. 

Gemini Man has stunning visuals and action sequences at the cost of a compelling story and is so far the worst Ang Lee film I have ever seen. It’s not bad to the point where I’m angry but it’s so bland and slow that I just wanted to rush to the coffee shop after seeing the movie.