Gemini Man
/“You made a person out of another person, then you sent me to kill him. You made a choice to do this to me.”
Filmology Rating: 2 out of 4
Gemini Man directed by Ang Lee- the film stars Will Smith twice, Benedict Wong as the comic-relief, and not Sigourney Weaver.
Will Smith is a secret agent and his government turns against him because reasons. A younger clone of Will Smith is sent to kill him because plot because Mr. Evil-man is evil because movie and money. Overall, this film was just okay in the broadest way. If you're familiar with how a film should structure, pace, and tell a story with depthful characters, then you'll probably dislike the film.
Ang Lee is about as good as you get in terms of a modern action director. His film, 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', is a brilliant film. But the real issue with this film is the script.
The story is as interesting as lined paper. This plot could be made into the 'Naked Gun' film because of how cliche it is. And the film could have made up for that with interesting characters, but nobody stands out.
Will Smith's two sidekicks, Baron and Danny, just stand around and wait to have exposition delivered to them. They serve no other purpose other than a romantic subplot that is hardly focused on and comic-relief that's never funny.
Some dialogue in particular is very blunt and just plain stupid when said by a human being.
However, the first act was decent. Not much happens, but it is fairly straight-forward and I found myself genuinely interested until the second half of a motorcycle chase, which starts in one brilliant long take.
A lot of the action in this film either has the camera too close to the actors, in a dark location, or both. It was very hard to distinguish what was happening. That is very sad to say when compared to 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.' The motion capture on young Will Smith is actually very good at times. The only time it sticks out is when he talks or is in broad daylight. Then it looks awful.
The villain is also inexcusably boring and broad. But with a dragging story, boring second act, and no characters, 'Gemini Man' serves only the bare minimum requirements of an okay film.
Rating: Skip It
-Nolan