GEMINI MAN by Urizen

   

Gemini Man was a movie I largely ignored when it was first announced. Truthfully I waited quite a bit to watch the trailer for it. Eventually I gave in, finding it looked like a pretty cool concept. The visuals and effects seemed amazing, so it became a must see for me. Unfortunately this movie had to release the same day as The Addams family, which seems to be how October is going to work. Ultimately Gemini Man won out, mainly due to being the less busy of the two. 

   Starring Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, and CGI de-aged Will Smith, Ang Lee's Gemini Man tells the tale of government assassin Henry Brogan. Getting older, and having enough of the lifestyle, he decides to retire only to find himself being hunted by a mysterious hitman that looks exactly like him. Along the way he meets up with another agent named Danny, and a few old friends as they work to uncover the mystery of why Henry is being hunted and who the mysterious hitman is.

   Really I can't help but think that the description I gave for this movie makes it sound ten times more mysterious than it actually is. This movie isn’t bad. I will start off by saying that, but it isn’t anything special. The story is very straightforward with no real twists. It is a very generic, by-the-book action thriller that tries to feel like John Wick, the Bourne movies, and somewhat Superboy. The story is very much the weakest point of the film. I kept hoping for more and thinking how cool it would be if they went certain routes. Unfortunately though it just ends up being a disappointing  run of the mill movie. On top of it all, it takes almost an hour for us to get introduced to the plot involving the cloned Henry. Considering that is one of the major selling points of the movie, it is frustrating that it took that long to get there.

   I will say that while the plot was nothing to write home about, the acting and characters for the most part were pretty good. Will Smith managed to do a solid job at playing both Henry and the clone. His performance was spectacular, really selling the character. The only moments when I was unsure of  him didn’t even have anything to do with him, but more so the CGI seemingly not showing the proper emotion. Overall though, Smith did a great job.

   Another stand out for me was Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Danny Zakarweski. I truly hadn’t realized just how many things I had seen her in until I looked her up after the movie. I’d say Winstead actually stood out just as much as Smith in this. She really sold her performance well. It is nice having some good strong female characters in movies. We so often have ones that are forced into proving themselves just because they are not a man. It is a shame that female characters are so often written that way as between that and romantic subplots, it set things back a lot. I think we are finally moving away from that, and with this and her performance, I even more so look forward to Birds of Prey.

   I think one of the major selling points of this movie were the visuals. The film relies heavily on CGI, and was shot at 120 frames per second. While shooting at that speed does provide some cool effects, there are plenty of times it just looks a bit odd. Gemini Man feels like it is supposed to be seen in IMAX 3D. So much so that you end up feeling like things aren't quite right with the look of the film when you see it in standard. If it felt more natural and was a bigger film, that might be okay, but it is Gemini Man not The Avengers.

   The CGI was really hit or miss.  A lot of the time it worked really well, especially in the action sequences, which were well choreographed also. The de-aging was really impressive throughout most of the movie. Emphasis on most. Back when I saw Captain Marvel, I mentioned how I had worries about having the young Samuel L Jackson in the movie for so much of it. With the amount of CGI they would have to spend, I figured there would be many moments of it not looking great. In the case of Captain Marvel I was proven wrong. Not so much with Gemini Man. For a decent portion of the movie, the de-aged Will Smith looks pretty good honestly. It is still a bit amazing to me how far we have come with this technology. A lot of time, though, I find myself feeling like I am watching a modern video game character. The appearance is realistic enough, but is very obviously not quite right. Again, would look amazing for a video game, but for a big screen movie like this, it stands out. Other than that, there are some green screen moments that are a bit obvious and some shoddy action moments.

   All of these things accumulate to make Gemini Man a generic action thriller. If you want a pretty decent and fun popcorn flick, and to see Will Smith being Will Smith, then it would be worth a watch. I’d say though if you are looking for a deep story, with a few twists and some innovation, then don’t waste your time with the movie. You’re bound to find something more entertaining to watch.