Gemini Man
Directed by: Ang Lee
Written by: David Benioff and Billy Ray and Darren Lemke
Starring: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Ralph Brown, Linda Emond, Douglas Hodge, Ilia Volok, David Shae, E.J. Bonilla
Action/Drama/Sci-Fi - 117 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 10 Oct 2019
Written by: David Benioff and Billy Ray and Darren Lemke
Starring: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Ralph Brown, Linda Emond, Douglas Hodge, Ilia Volok, David Shae, E.J. Bonilla
Action/Drama/Sci-Fi - 117 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 10 Oct 2019
I saw Ang Lee’s Gemini Man, but it’s possible the director would say I have not seen it, at least not how he intended for me to see it. Lee, a two time Best Director Academy Award winner, shot Gemini Man in 120 frames per second - the standard movie you watch is 24fps. He shot it in 4K 3D. I saw it 2D and certainly not in 4K. So I saw the film, but not in as cutting edge a manner Lee wants audiences to experience it in. There are very few theaters in this country capable of presenting it to his specifications. However, Gemini Man’s problems are not that most will see it in 2D and at less frames per second, it is the boiler plate, slapdash script. Gemini Man is an example of a proven director stuck in a technology phase. Lee is more gadgets and gizmos right now than plot and character.
Ang Lee has directed action films before, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hulk, the one with Eric Bana. But Crouching Tiger was more wire work and acrobatic grace. Gemini Man has a full-on digitized character. That is not a de-aged Will Smith (Suicide Squad). That is a 100% computer-generated Will Smith. The script sat on the shelf for decades because the technology was not ready yet to pull it off. Young Will Smith is impressive, but there is something a bit off about him. The facial movements maintain that hint of “not quite right.” Gemini Man is a gimmick. Those of us over 35 know Will Smith as both West Philadelphia born-and-raised Fresh Prince and the new face of the Genie in Aladdin. We get the appeal of Fresh Prince versus AARP Prince. However, beyond some fast-paced, whiz bang scenes of older Smith fighting a video game character, there is nothing else.
Ang Lee has directed action films before, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hulk, the one with Eric Bana. But Crouching Tiger was more wire work and acrobatic grace. Gemini Man has a full-on digitized character. That is not a de-aged Will Smith (Suicide Squad). That is a 100% computer-generated Will Smith. The script sat on the shelf for decades because the technology was not ready yet to pull it off. Young Will Smith is impressive, but there is something a bit off about him. The facial movements maintain that hint of “not quite right.” Gemini Man is a gimmick. Those of us over 35 know Will Smith as both West Philadelphia born-and-raised Fresh Prince and the new face of the Genie in Aladdin. We get the appeal of Fresh Prince versus AARP Prince. However, beyond some fast-paced, whiz bang scenes of older Smith fighting a video game character, there is nothing else.
Older Smith is Henry Brogan, a DIA hitman with 72 kills who has been retired all of one day. At the risk of turning this review into an attack on the script’s believability factor, The Defense Intelligence Agency does not employ hitmen - even its more secretive Defense Clandestine Service. They may have source handlers who run agents, but nobody struts around with a license to kill. Questions arise about the validity of Brogan’s last kill, a remarkably stupid government conspiracy kicks in led by bad guy Clive Owen (Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets), and now Brogran is on the run from his younger clone who knows all of his methods and moves…but what about his humanity?
Writers David Benioff, Billy Ray, and Darren Lemke want us to ponder the soul of younger Smith, known as Junior. Does Junior have the same fears and doubts of the original, or have they been bred and trained out of him? Dialogue skirts this rhetoric, but none of it goes anywhere. Brogan and sidekick, Danny Zakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kill the Messenger), are on the run, enjoy exotic locales like Budapest and Cartagena, and do not seem as pissed off as they should be that Uncle Sam wants them in body bags by close of business. There is a fight in some catacombs with skulls and femurs flying everywhere and some nifty motor bike stunt work through Cartagena's streets which makes the film feel larger than it is. Don’t let the setting fool you, none of this is original except for the computer software.
We’ve seen attempts to breed the perfect soldier before - 1992’s Universal Soldier and 1998’s Soldier come to mind. Yet, Brogan is a hitman humanist. This sniper seeks inner peace and at least appreciates select eastern mysticism. He grooms banzai trees and burns his victims’ pictures in a ceremonial urn - very zen. He is self aware enough to know he is losing his edge. There are many lines of work you can lose a step and have it not matter, but when it comes to killing folks whizzing by you on bullet trains, you should probably be at the top of your game. 72 kills also takes a mental toll. Brogan levels this zinger at his handler, “My soul is hurt. I just want some peace.” Gemini Man will dash your dreams of an elite Ang Lee action extravaganza and crush your excitement of Will Smith kicking the crap out of himself. It’s eye-rolling nonsense any computer science grad student could pull off with the right code - the opposite of zen.
Comment Box is loading comments...
