'Gemini Man' REVIEW—Generic and Bland

There are some movies you'll remember, such as Avengers: Endgame or Back to the Future. As in, movies so iconic and memorable that you remember their titles. This movie, on the other hand, will forever be remembered as "that movie where Will Smith fights his younger self."

Here we go!

Gemini Man is an action thriller directed by Ang Lee. The film stars Will Smith as an aging assassin who finds himself on the run as he is hunted by a younger, cloned version of himself.

This is a film that has been in development hell since 1997, with numerous stars having been attached to the project, but it was never made because until recently, the technology to de-age an actor didn't exist, but with this technology appearing in films such as Captain Marvel and It: Chapter Two, this film was finally made.

And I personally can't believe that they had twenty years to write this script and this was the best they could come up with.

This film's writing credits were given to David Benioff (creator of Game of Thrones), Darren Lemke (writer of Shrek Forever After and Shazam!), and Billy Ray (writer of Captain Phillips). These writers couldn't be more varied in their styles and experiences, and yet, they all contributed to this script.

And because of this, the film's script is incredibly messy. Exposition is given very poorly in this film, with a lot of important information being given to the audience by telling it instead of actually showing it. This film is almost completely unaware of the "show-don't-tell" technique of screenwriting.

Some pieces of information simply seem to be repeated over and over again in multiple different ways, when instead, this information could have been shown to the audience visually.

There's only one flashback scene where we see something that happened to Smith's character when he was younger, but besides that, we only tend to find out how he feels about his actions when he verbally speaks about it, instead of in his actions and emotions.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong also appear in this film in supporting roles, but their characters are also given very little development. Wong's character is given a few funny quips and that's it, as Winstead's character feels like a very one-dimensional sidekick.

The antagonist of the film, portrayed by Clive Owen, is completely forgettable. He is given no development except some scenes where the characters talk about his past actions, but he isn't given any traits or motives that set him apart from a by-the-books action movie villain.

Lee chose to shoot this film at 120 frames per second (most films are shot at 24 fps), and I watched this film in IMAX, 3D, and at a high frame rate, and because of the frame rate, scenes in the film could look very peculiar, almost resembling a video game. There are even first-person-shooter shots in this film.

This leads me to Lee's direction of the film's action sequences. Some of them are incredible, as he used a lot of long takes during these sequences. My favorite of these was a motorcycle chase where there are approximately 20 uncut seconds of Smith riding a motorcycle, and it looked absolutely incredible.

However, as for the hand-to-hand combat sequences, they generally didn't look very good. Because even though the camera didn't cut too many times, the camera was very closed in on our actors during these fights, and this, coupled with the high frame rate, could make them a bit incoherent.

Many of the fight scenes in the film are completely forgettable, and only one scene felt creative enough to be memorable, and it's a scene where Junior (the younger Smith clone) beats up Henry (the OG Smith) using a motorcycle as his weapon. The idea of it is ridiculous but it's entertaining.

Smith also does a great job of portraying both his older, wiser self and his younger, more emotional clone. They don't share too much banter with each other, but Smith sells both of these roles, playing both of them very differently.

I also want to talk about the de-aging of Smith in this movie, because most of it looks absolutely flawless.

Last May, I had my short film screened at a film festival where the editor of this film was in attendance, and he talked briefly about his experience animating young Will Smith's face, as there are many shots where his face isn't a result of digital de-aging, but is actually an animated face based off of Smith's motion capture.

And it looks incredibly realistic. His face is almost always clear and covered in sweat and blood. However, there is one scene in the movie where Smith's CGI face is incredibly obvious, with the scene not even appearing as if it had been finished.

The CGI, a few well-directed sequences, and the performances are essentially the only positive aspects of this film. Most of this movie is a very generic retread of ideas that have already been done in other films, such as a retiring assassin and a character fighting themself. The film reminded me of Looper without the time travel.

Overall, this film is very bland. The action setpieces are generally very average and unremarkable, and the story contains very few original ideas that haven't already been in other superior films. Many scenes are quite dull ,and Lee's direction is not up to par with his work in other films, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

I'm gonna give Gemini Man a 5/10 (C-).

Unfortunately, I do not recommend this film. And if you do see this film, think twice about watching it at a high frame rate. I'm not saying do it or don't; I'm saying it isn't for everyone.

On a separate note, can we just rename this film The Sad Prince of Bel-Air? I think everyone could remember that title.

Thank you so much for reading!