The premise of Gemini Man isn’t new to Hollywood, but there will always be something that Will Smith can bring to the screen that nobody else can. And that is Will Smith. He is still very much a leading man. Even in his old age his still has that natural charm and charisma he did as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Like I said the premise of an actor playing dual roles is very much a Hollywood tradition. However, Gemini Man puts its own unique spin on the acting portion. See the other younger more “Fresh” has been completely fabricated in the virtual special effects lab. This should not come as much as a shock to modern moviegoers as de-aging has become quite common in films today. Think Samuel L Jackson in Captain Marvel. But again I mislead you a little. See this time they didn’t just take the actor and de-age him. Nope, they literally created him from scratch in CGI. It is quite impressive.
The Movie
The Movie itself has us catch up with Henry Brogan (Will Smith )on a mission that has him pull off an incredible hit. That right Henry is a world-class assassin. The best at what he does. ( and what he does isn’t very nice? – wrong franchise ) But even the best need to rest. And so Henry goes into retirement. Of course, this doesn’t last and soon his previous employers are hunting him down. And when their primary team fails they send in someone a little closer to home.
The movie does have some good ideas and tackles some age-old questions like nurture versus nature. Does one’s true nature overcome the environment that he or she is placed in? It does over us insight into some current real-world issues that are slowly starting to brew. The current debate on cloning is touched on. Essentially the movie does bring some heart to these very real questions. And Will is perfectly placed with the acting range to play both sides.
However, don’t let the drama distract you from the action of the film. And it has plenty of action. There are some lovely action pieces and like I said earlier some groundbreaking effects. But the movie is entirely reliant upon the actions of Will to carry it. I believe that is where it starts to fall apart. Besides the comedic relief of Benedict Wong, the rest of the cast is rather wooden. The film tries to salvage this with exotic locations but even that doesn’t disguise the fact that the cast could have done better with at least one more familiar face.
Verdict
All in all, the movie is still a good watch and really does bring the human element to a tried and trusted formula. It may have been better if the duality of Gemini Man was not exposed to marketing. If you a sci-fi fan then this is definitely worth checking out.
