Gemini Man Review

 
Gemini Man is an innovative action-thriller starring Will Smith as Henry Brogan, an elite assassin, who is suddenly targeted and pursued by a mysterious young operative that seemingly can predict his every move.
PG-13: For violence and action throughout, and brief strong languageProduction Companies: Skydance Media, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Fosun Pictures, Alibaba PicturesDistributor: Paramount PicturesRuntime: 1 Hour and 57 MinutesDirector: Ang LeeWriters: David Benioff, Billy Ray, Darren LemkeCast: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict WongRelease Date: October 11, 2019Oh, Ang Lee. It takes a special director to make one of the most visually stunning and profound films of the decade, win an Oscar in the end, and then proceed to make two complete messes while trying to raise the bar with special effects even though the end products were often… bad. But you can’t say he’s not ambitious. This review will be more of a narrative because my relationship with this movie is kind of bizarre. I have no relation to it, but it's a movie that made me think about the purpose of visual effects in cinema and the digital revolution of the filmmaking medium. On October 7, I went to the press screening of Gemini Man and it presented to me in HFR (high frame rate) 3D, which is how Ang Lee intended it to be watched. The only person that I knew attempted this was Peter Jackson with his Hobbit trilogy. Nobody that I know who saw it in this format was fond of it, even though its high frame rate went to 48fps. Ang Lee, being the wonder — the challenger — that he is, went beyond that and shot his latest feature at 120fps. 
First off, I have terrible eyesight and this was my first experience with the format. While I am always in awe of the 3D format — making for some of the most unforgettable cinematic experiences in my life, such as the first How to Train Your Dragon movie and Gravity — I'll be the first to tell ya: it’s not fun wearing glasses on top of glasses. Now, as a Millennial (or Gen-Z if you want to be specific) I'm all up for the modernization of different mediums. And while I'd never seen a movie in HFR, I’m not a fan of it at all. My mom owns a huge, fullscreen HDTV and it ran at 48fps when she first got it. I didn’t know how to word it at the time, but it irked the shit out of me. I immediately changed its format to 24fps. So, imagine how I felt watching Gemini Man on a huge Dolby screen at 120fps. Oof. This wasn’t it chief. I couldn’t do it. While I admire Lee’s ambitious means of upgrading immersive cinematic experiences, this was something I couldn't stomach… literally. I got nauseous while watching this movie and it wasn't because of the clearer frame rate, which makes everything on screen have its own layer of dimension — it was the speed. Not to sound like an old person but everything was too fast for me and it became bothersome, detaching me from the film itself where I couldn't bask in the action set pieces, the story, or the performances. It didn't even feel like a movie to me. It just became a chore, where I wanted to turn the frame rate down to 24fps, but I would've even taken 48, to be honest. 120 was a new level of hell that gave me a headache. It didn’t help that the fast-paced movement of the film made the performances feel bad. Because of that, I got up and walked out. I planned on watching this again in full that same week, in 2D of course. 
I returned later that week to watch the film in 2D and after being in the theater for 10 minutes I came to the realization that my problem wasn’t just HFR, it was also the movie itself. Yeah, for a movie that uses state of the art technology, it has a story straight outta 1997.Seriously, I bet Gemini Man’s pitch was, “Hey, what if we made an action movie based on the insult, ‘Why are you hitting yourself?’ and made it the most generic narrative but also digitally profound?”If there’s anything favorable I feel about this movie it's that they filmed a scene at my college! They filmed at Brooklyn College, which I attend. Will Smith and Mary Elizabeth Winstead were on my campus! Thanks, Ang Lee, for making my shitty college popular! Okay, all jokes aside, the de-aging effect on Big Willie is astounding. Because Smith started off his career at such a young age, it was incredible to see both generations of Smith — current day vs. Fresh Prince days — butt heads and it's friggin’ seamless. It's a shame I saw this after seeing The Irishman, a movie that used its de-aging effects to tell an epic tale rather than a bad action movie. Ang Lee is a great filmmaker from a technical standpoint, but lately, he has been very intrusive when it comes to being on set and directing his actors. It takes a special director to make Will Smith, the master of charisma, look bad and deliver a bad performance. He may not have been in any great projects recently, but he always manages to deliver an alluring charm. Not here. Smith doesn’t really deliver his signature energetic charisma that we’re familiar with.The action set pieces are bland and are choreographed like a lesser Mission Impossible film. It has a budget similar to that of an M.I. movie but it never takes full advantage of the locations some of the sequences were shot in. They have the potential to be large and extravagant, but they eventually just resort to two Will Smiths punching each other in the face in various places. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is also bad and is not given much to do except serve as Smith’s partner that reluctantly goes on this journey with him. Because of her gender, the film has an excruciating will-they-won’t-they dynamic which you simply don’t care about. You male writers need to learn how to write platonism, it’s not that hard.As bad as the plot is, it reminds me of Sonic Adventure 2. Seriously, younger Smith (Junior) is made to be the ultimate life form until he collides with older Smith numerous times in exotic locations across the world. They have encounters that are similar to this cut scene:
And the finale, I crap you not, leads to both of them working together to face a common foe: Junior’s creator. Just like in Sonic Adventure 2!Well, at this point my review is being posted after the film’s release and my motivation to fully dissect it is long gone. It’s weak on all fronts: the screenplay and the narrative are bland, the dialogue is bad, the performances are bad. The only salvageable aspects are the de-aging effects. That said, several 2019 movies have used de-aging to provide better stories, like The Irishman and Captain Marvel. No offense to the artist that made this come to life, but goddamn, this was kind of a waste. Ambitious, but a waste. Rating: 2/5 | 43%