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Rating: 1.5 out of 5
I am really sad to say this, and I have in denial for a long time about it, but I must say that the Era of Big Willie Weekend is officially dead and gone. In the 90s, Will Smith was the absolute king and heavyweight champion and the star of all starts. Props need to be given for the first Bad Boys, Independence Day, Men In Black, Enemy of the state, and the not so great Wild Wild West. Will Smith is still a big star, but when it comes to Gemini Man, the end seems to be here now. The age of having your face CGI and to make you look younger is now around. With a younger face doesn’t mean that your movie will be great, and this movie wasn’t amazing, but it didn’t suck. Gemini Man is meh in my eyes with over the top fighting and a blah storyline.
Henry Brogan (Smith) is an elite 51-year-old assassin who’s ready to call it quits after completing his 72nd job. The dude is tired and ready to call it a career as he has survived a lot longer than anyone else in his field. As Henry tries to adjust to retirement life, he meets boat rental manager Danny (Winstead). He reconnects with an old friend, Jack, who reveals that an informant named Yuri told him that the man Henry killed was innocent. Things become even more complicated when Danny, a CIA operative on the mission to monitor Henry, is soon attacked by operatives. As Henry and Danny try to figure out who is trying to kill him, they soon learn that a younger, faster, cloned version of himself in his pursuer. The clone is produced by Clay Varris (Owens), head of an elite private military unit codenamed “GEMINI,” and Henry’s former boss wants him dead. Now Henry must find a way to stay alive and convince his younger self to not kill him and see the world as he sees it.
The only reason this movie is even decent is from the strong performance from Will Smith. Smith is not the problem in this film, as many people might think. He seems to stay on the level that got him to be an international superstar. He still is as cool as he was in Independence Day and Men In Black. His performance was twenty times better than what it was in that awful After Earth.
Smith’s role as “Junior” was the main attraction of this film. Emotionally, the dude is all over the place when he sees his older self. I had to do some research and thought that Smith used the new de-aging work for the film, but homeboy went completely digital and used motion-capture. With Junior, he went all the way back to his Fresh Prince days with the high-top haircut. As the character, he was able to distinguish the less experienced and far more confused Junior rather than the knowledgeable and weary Henry. Once again, Smith wasn’t the problem in this film.
The problem with this film is the storyline and just the movie itself. It seems like NO ONE can make a halfway decent action film anymore. They believe that over the top action and stunts are the way to get it done now. When I say the storyline is one of the problems, I mean there is no thinking involved. You have an assassin who is tired and wants to retire, but the organization he works for is like, “Naw homie. It’s time to get rid of you because you know way too much, and we are going to send an assassin to destroy you.” Simple story, and then it is like, let’s add on a clone with the same abilities to take out the old dude. I was even somewhat okay with it until there was more talk than anything else because one has already seen this type of film. It is always an organization where the leader thinks he knows best for the world and how to handle every situation. Every James Bond film is like that.
The film should’ve taken more time into exploring the very idea of a person and how they become to be. We have a character in Old Will Smith, who decided to become a government agent. He became the person that he wanted to be. On the other hand, we have Junior, who was raised in the environment and doesn’t know any better but believes it is the best way to do things. So, the age-old question of nature vs. nurture comes into effect. Does one genetic inheritance or the environment they grew up in contribute to their development. The film tries to state that both make a person. Junior has the genetic makeup of the person he was cloned after, but the environment he grew up in has a strong influence. The only problem is that the film makes a mess of it all.
When there isn’t any talking during this film, and there is A LOT of talking and slowed down moments, the action scenes are over the top. Fine, if you want to run through the streets while shooting each other, that’s cool. Seen it before. If you want to do a motorcycle chase, that is also cool. Seen it, but okay. When you try to add clunky and STUPID special effects to make the scene look like a video game, then that is where the problem comes. The special effects/CGI just look way off and horrible. The motorcycle fight scene was clunky and video game-like, and it shouldn’t have been that way.
Gemini Man is a film that can be skipped altogether. Even with a strong performance from Smith, there are FAR BETTER films to watch than this film. Smith’s performance carries this film, but it still can’t overcome the weak storyline and blah action scenes. Sometimes it’s better not to make a weak ass film. The stars weren’t looking down on this film.
