Okay, so imagine if the final clone that looked like the villain Ghost from Ant-Man and the Wasp took off its mask and the actor under it was Jaden Smith; you know, sort’ve looks like Will Smith and trying to be as good as Will Smith but is not really as good as Will Smith. That clone looked so disappointed in itself… It could have fit. Too mean for me to say it though? Probably too mean.
So, Gemini Man, aka The Fresh Clone of Bel-Air, is basically a sequel to Suicide Squad – Deadshot is retiring, but the government clones him because he is too good as a sharp shooter. He bumps into Huntress, and trains her before her first big outing in Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, coming soon to a cinema near you! No? I liked when Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character asked Will Smith if he’s ever had his own government try to kill him before and he says “this is a first.” Obviously Enemy of the State is a distant memory nowadays, or it never took place in this universe. The fact that she asked that is probably a joke referencing Enemy of the State – if not, I’m sure taking it as one.
Anyway…
Gemini Man stars Will Smith as a government assassin seeking retirement. After he discovers that the last target he was sent to kill wasn’t really a dangerous terrorist like he was told, the government sends a younger hitman to take him out; a younger hitman who looks mysteriously similar to himself.
Firstly, let’s address the way the film looks. I’m no professional when it comes to film-making technology but it seems pretty obvious that director Ang Lee is experimenting with different cameras or using cameras in a way that is not conventional in every day movies. The film is really bright with rich, bold colour. The background and foreground almost match up; it almost appears as if our actors are always on green-screen and the location is dropped in behind them, although I don’t think that is the case. You can’t complain about a more vibrant picture, but it doesn’t look normal, and it doesn’t look natural. It’s noticeable, to put it simply. I don’t know but maybe Lee has chosen to film like this so when the de-aged Will Smith clone shows up, and much of the fighting between the true Will Smith and the altered one requires CGI editing, it doesn’t stand out as much. I will admit, the first couple of fight scenes don’t look bad at all. The action scene that finishes on the motorcycles, in particular, is thrilling!
The entire advertisement campaign for this movie has been predicated on the fact that Will Smith’s character will face a younger version of himself – both images of Will Smith have been in the trailer, on billboards and posters. I think I really enjoyed the first third of this movie just in anticipation of the big meeting. After the two met though, I found myself less engaged with what was going on. Ultimately, the Will Smith clone character, Junior, is not very likable. There’s a climactic moment in the middle of the film where the original Will Smith character, Henry, has Junior at gunpoint telling him they are the same person because he knows exactly how he feels inside, and Junior is having none of it. He’s not shocked or confused as to how this stranger can know within him, or at least he doesn’t show it. Because of this I never felt the emotional punch that this scene was going for and it’s a pretty important scene. We also see the clone in the places he grew up; he has sneakers on shelves and toy models in his room, and he is shown licking an ice-cream at the Gemini headquarters. The screenwriter is trying to convey to us that Junior has grown up with love and luxury, but that doesn’t pair with what we have been told of a Gemini soldier, someone who is beaten down, drowned even, until they are hardened enough to face any objective. Junior is thought to be about 23, and I just can’t see someone who has been pulverised to become an assassin still having toy models in his room.
Another slight problem is the way the movie handles the relationship between Henry and Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character, Dani. There’s a few instances of flirty suggestion and it’s handled rather clunkily. Henry suspects Dani is an agent sent to spy on him, but when she doesn’t crack under his interrogation, she seems annoyed, but still agrees to go on a date with him. Then, on the date it is revealed that she actually is a government agent sent to spy on him after all; why would you risk your cover by dating the guy who’s already onto you? By the way, why isn’t Dani the first sent to take out Henry when it’s discovered he knows too much, since she is the one put in charge of him? Even if she was the first sent to kill Henry, she could fail, Henry could convince her that he is a nice guy and the movie could go on the same from there. Dani does probably have the most bad-ass scene of the movie though, where she beats a would-be assassin with her superior hand-to-hand combat skills and hands Henry the guy’s teeth she extracted to get information. Woah.
The de-aging technology keeps getting better and it isn’t going away anytime soon (we’ve had Captain Marvel earlier this year with Samuel. L. Jackson, and we have The Irishman to come with Robert De Niro). For the most part it is believable enough that the young Will Smith is on screen. That is, until the last scene. What happened at that university? Junior is walking around like he’s Jar Jar Binks. Incidentally, in that same scene is the first time we get a bit of that old Will Smith charm too. Which got me thinking, side-note, when was the last time Will Smith had a fun role? Let’s look it up…. with Bright, Collateral Beauty and Suicide Squad it’s been pretty dour. There was Aladdin in there as well so I can’t complain, but I want more Will Smith charisma again. Please. Finally, the idea of cloning your best soldiers to keep your army strong is a good one. The idea to clone soldiers to save generations of parents losing their sons and daughters at war is an intriguing one. And even for the few moments of thinking what it must be like for Henry to give advice to himself for the good of his soul is touching. Gemini Man has a solid premise, but it’s surrounded by some generic action rubbish. Like, these Gemini soldiers are built up to be elite, yet they can’t hit an old man in a hardware store with a Gatling gun and a troop of machine guns? But this biggest plot hole is this; if you have a clone of the best marksman on the beat, and you’re confident he is good enough to take out the original, why bother tarnishing the career of the original in the first place and get the clone to kill the scientist? Just send the clone! Just send the clone and keep Gemini secret. Bizarre choice by Clive Owen’s character, but I guess if Henry never gets his hands dirty, then we don’t have a movie. I liked this Gemini Man less and less as it went on.
2.5
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