Gemini Man Review

Gemini Man was a high-concept action-thriller that has been in development since 1997. Directors like Tony Scott and Curtis Hanson were attached as well as actors like Nicolas Cage, Mel Gibson, and Clint Eastwood before Ang Lee and Will Smith took it on.

Henry Brogan (Smith) is the best assassin the American government has. He’s able to snipe a man on a speeding train. After one mission too many Henry decides to retire before the guilt consumes him. Unfortunately for Henry the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has a different interpretation of retirement and sends a team to kill the assassin. When Henry goes on the run he has to face his greatest opponent, a younger version of himself.

One of the main reasons why Gemini Man took so long to be made was the technology needed to catch up to the concept. This was where the film excelled. Weta Digital worked on the special effect and as would be expected from them the De-Aging effects were fantastic. The young Will Smith was seamless for most of the part – there was only one scene where the effects were obvious. Considering Captain Marvel and The Irishman have also been released, 2019 is the year that has proven De-Aging technology.

One of the most interesting draws of Gemini Man was its director: Ang Lee. Lee is an auteur filmmaker who has made award-winning films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi. He is a director who likes to push boundaries and his current fixation is filming technology. Gemini Man is the second film he has made using a frame rate of 120fps and in 3D. Gemini Man did have a unique look to it. This filming technique made me feel like I was in the room with the characters.

However, this filming style affected the action because the frame rate was so fast that it was hard to follow the action sequences. This approach worked best when there was a PoV shot. The 3D HDR style could work for a Hardcore Henry-style film.

Because of Lee’s focus on technology the story and ideas fell by the wayside. Despite the film was credited to three writers due to the long development time the probability is many more screenwriters worked on the project. Because of this, a number of stories and ideas were just put into a meat grinder to create the cinematic versions of sausages.

The basic premise of Gemini Man is of an assassin being hunted by his younger self could easily have led to a fun if ridiculous blockbuster like Face-Off. Or a filmmaker could have chosen to go down a serious route looking at ideas like identity, nature vs. nurture, and the ethics of cloning. What Ang Lee delivered was a spy-thriller that happens to have a sci-fi twist. The setup was the same as RED, where the CIA tries to kill a former agent and forces him to go on the run. The main villain in the film owns a private military contractor which is an easy target since no one is going to defend them. It was oddly pedestrian.

One of the few times the film did lean more towards sci-fi involved a line by one character saying that the evil corporation wanted to make supersoldiers based on the cloning technology. It seems like the logical next step in the film’s universe but this was a fleeting idea in the film and seemed more like a leftover from a previous draft of the screenplay.

The film had a great cast but there were wasted in this film. Will Smith has had a poor run of form, with Aladdin being the only hit in recent times. As Henry he’s meant to be a hard and lonely assassin who’s racked with guilt that he can’t even look at himself in the mirror. Despite what Henry says, Smith plays him as someone who’s much more easy-going and he tries to make the character charming. Smith as Junior was a much more wooden with his delivery. Mary Elizabeth Winstead doesn’t fare much better, she seemed like she was just doing a table reading – which is a real shame because she’s much better than this. At least Benedict Wong offered some levity as one of Henry’s old war buddies.

Like Smith, Clive Owen has been stuck in an actor stump. His recent filmography has seen him pigeonholed in villainous roles. He was going through the motions as he psychologically manipulates his adopted son to do his bidding. There was potential for a deeper examination of nature vs. nurture or show Junior having a moral and identity crisis but the filmmakers didn’t take the opportunity.

It was amusing to see the product placement in the film because it was blatant. The worst offender was Coca Cola which made an early appearance. Those scenes acted almost acted an ad. Honda, Blackberry Phone, and Gorilla Tape were also noticeable.

Gemini Man was a special effects triumph and I like award-winning the 3D+ technology to be developed more. But great technology cannot compensate for weak storytelling.