Gemini Man Review: How many Will Smiths does it take to save a bad movie?

Ang Lee has got to be one of the most inconsistent directors working in Hollywood today. First, he’ll make something brilliant like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Then, he’ll make something bizarrely dull like Hulk. He’ll make Brokeback Mountain, then Taking Woodstock. He’ll make Life of Pi - and then Gemini Man. You get the drift. 

Watching Ang Lee movies is a gamble. You never know whether you’re getting the next Oscar-winning darling, or an inexplicably bad, all-around forgettable film. Gemini Man unfortunately falls in the latter category. This movie is centred on a tired ‘actor playing two roles’ gimmick, and doesn’t even execute that well. It boggles my mind that after Life of Pi, Ang Lee decided that his next big thing was going to be a movie with two Will Smiths. 

At least the acting’s good

It doesn’t even need to be said that Will Smith owns both his roles here. He’s a great actor, and gets to flex those chops as Henry Brogan and his clone, Junior. Henry is old and getting tired of living the life of an assassin, while Junior is young, naive and stubborn to boot. Smith channels both these characters absurdly well, eliciting just the right amount of emotion for viewers to sympathise with both Brogans. 

The supporting cast is pretty great as well! Mary Elizabeth Winstead does extremely well with what she’s given (which is very little), and Benedict Wong does an excellent job as comedic relief. Clive Owen also does a great job as the main antagonist, though he plays a character that's as shallow as a puddle. 

It’s really a shame. These actors are fantastic, and you can tell that they could’ve done so much more if they had been given a worthwhile script, but they weren’t. Their performances elevate the movie, certainly - but not by much. 

3D HFR

Now - one of the interesting things about Gemini Man is the technology the movie uses. First of all, the de-aging technology used for Will Smith is really impressive at certain points. It’s still very much uncanny valley in a way - with rubbery faces and expressions that don’t quite look human. Regardless, I couldn’t help but be impressed with how far that technology has come. 

The next big thing you’ll see every cinema touting is that this movie comes in 3D HFR. Ang Lee is making a big push for higher frame rates in movies, first with his last movie (Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk) and now this. I watched Gemini Man in 3D at 60fps - and I really can’t recommend it. 

Some might remember Peter Jackson’s big push for 60fps with The Hobbit movies, stating that 3D effects would look better and the overall film would appear more realistic. First of all, this movie had the worst implementation of 3D I have seen in a while. Nothing really popped out besides the subtitles, and thus the image wasn’t really immersive. If you can’t do 3D right, why do it at all? All you get with this movie is a flat image, and - once in a while - something that looks like it’s floating one inch above the movie screen. 

As for the movie’s HFR capabilities - if this is the future of movies, it’s one I don’t want to live in. HFR does make the movie look more realistic - and in turn, less cinematic. Images are robbed of any colour whatsoever, scenes look like they’re from a soap opera and action sequences are flat out terrible. 

There’s a reason most action scenes are filmed in 24fps - fights end up looking quick, brutal and realistic. You watch a fist connect with a face and your brain registers it as real - because you only saw it for a split second. In 60fps, all of the action scenes just look overtly hokey and fake. When windows shatter, you see how fragile they were made to be in the first place. Punches don’t connect. Hits don’t land. Action scenes in this movie are already really confusing and shaky, and the high frame rate just makes that worse. 

Not-so Fresh Prince

Even if you take away this movie’s technical gimmicks and bad action scenes, this is still a pretty bad movie. Gemini Man focuses on Henry Brogan - a government assassin who simply wants to give up the life and retire. Unfortunately, he stumbles onto some information the government doesn’t want him to know about - which, of course, means he has to die. It’s all fairly Jason Bourne-ish until Brogan realises his would-be assassin is himself - but 20 years younger. 

This movie feels absurdly long for its runtime (2 hours) because the pacing is all the way off. It fools you into thinking it’s an action-packed thriller from the start, but devolves into poorly-written melodrama and weak character beats quickly. You’ve seen this story before in other movies, I can guarantee you.

Characters flip-flop in their allegiances with little reason, government bad guys are little more than caricatures and supporting characters feel entirely useless. Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character, for example, is quite literally given nothing to do. She’s a major part of the movie, but you could simply take her out of it and nothing about the story could change. 

The ending is a special kind of insult, too. I was left in disbelief that anyone could think that was a good way to conclude this story. 

Conclusion

Gemini Man’s 3D HFR’s capabilities are not enough to save it. In fact, I thought it brought the movie down by a couple notches in quality. The use of HFR in cinema is still up for debate, and its poor showcase here isn't helping its cause. As such, Gemini Man doesn’t feel nearly as innovative as it wants to be.

I really can’t recommend Gemini Man unless you’re a hardcore Will Smith fan. In which case, if you could handle Suicide Squad and After Earth...maybe this is the movie for you? 

My final rating: 2 Will Smiths out of 10

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