Review: Gemini Man

Gemini Man, directed by Ang Lee, tells the tale of a government assassin named Henry Brogan (Will Smith) who doesn’t want to kill people anymore and goes into retirement. But the government doesn’t like that, especially when Henry learns of a secret conspiracy behind his latest hit, so evil government man Clay Varris (Clive Owens) sends in a younger clone of Henry (CGI Will Smith) to eliminate him. It’s up to Henry with the help of some old and new friends to discover where this clone came from and take down Varris once and for all.

Now like many of you, I too thought the trailers for this movie looked pretty bad. I was curious to check it out though not only because it’s directed by Ang Lee, whose made some really terrific movies in the past like Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but also because the film is shot in 120fps 3D. Naturally I’m a sucker for experimental films like Lee’s previous film Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk which also utilizes the same technology but with a lower budget, so I checked it out in 60fps 3D (because no theater near me wanted to show the film in the full 120fps) and the movie itself was about as bad as you expected it. Gemini Man is no doubt a technologically ambitious film, but the lackluster CGI and terrible script really brings the film down as a whole.

As you can probably figure out, the story and writing is what hurts this movie a lot. The story is about as generic as you can get, the characters are uninteresting, and the writing gets laughably bad at times (the fact that one of the writers is David Benioff is bad enough). The CGI is also really noticeable here. There were many moments when the young Will Smith looks really off, especially during a lot of the mid shots. The rubbery textures and Xbox-esque graphics are especially noticeable when you view the film in the much touted 120fps 3D. Much of the acting is either decent or pretty bland and a lot of the filmmaking itself was barely passable.

Now the film wasn’t as bad as I originally thought it would be; there are quite a few aspects of the film it gets right. The action at times is actually enjoyable, especially in 120fps 3D. The added frame rate makes a lot of the action fast paced and incredibly fluid. The stunts and choreography looks especially clean given the technology used to shoot the film. Also Will Smith when he’s playing his older self without the CGI all over his face gives a pretty good performance. But aside from those two that’s all I really have to say about what I liked, but to the film’s credit that’s almost half the film.

Overall this was clearly an ambitious project from Ang Lee, but the really bad script and generic story makes this just another action movie that isn’t much different from the rest of them that came out this year so far. I would only recommend this film if anything for its use of a high frame rate. If however you’re not willing to put the time or money to see this film as the filmmakers clearly intended it to be seen then I wouldn’t even bother checking this film out. Much like a lot of films shot in 3D, once you can no longer see it in 3D then what’s even the point?

Final Verdict: 4/10