Gemini Man Is A Mixed Bag Of A Film That Entertains As Well as Disappoints

      

     Every great actor and director has not only their hits, but also carry their own share of flops on their resume. For every Jurassic Park and Schindlers List that Steven Spielberg directed, there was also his share of both critical and box office flops such as Empire Of The Sun, Always, Hook and The Terminal, which were viewed as being critical misfires with the audience. For every The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs that M. Night Shaymalan directed, there was also Lady In The Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth. In the case of a filmmaker as revered and well-respected as Ang Lee, for every Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, and Life Of Pi, there was Ride With The Devil, 2003's Hulk, and now Gemini Man is added to his list of flops unfortunately. Budgeted at $138 million with Will Smith as the lead, Gemini Man had the makings of being a hit film with a charismatic and bankable star in the lead role along with a visionary director, who carries an eye for balancing stunning visuals while getting great performances out of his main actors. With a story that was originally conceived in 1997, Gemini Man went through 20 years of development hell with several high-profile director originally attached such as Tony Scott, Curtis Hanson, and Joe Carnahan, along with stars such as Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, and Sean Connery before the project landed in the hands of Skydance Media, ultimately placing both Smith and Lee in the main title roles. Much has been said about the film since its release with the film turning out to be both a critical and financial misfire for audiences with losses totaling $75 million for Skydance along with the film bombing on Rotten Tomatoes with a critic score of just 25 percent. As terrible as the films reputation comes across as sounding, the actual film is not awful by any means nor is it a great effort, it manages to fall somewhere in the middle of being decent but not hard-hitting like some of Ang Lee's recent directorial efforts.

      The plot for Gemini Man centers around an elite operative/professional hitman (Played by Will Smith) preparing to retire, but soon discovers that he's being tracked by a younger clone of himself with an equal amount of skills as an assassin, who seems hellbent on destroying him. Looking at the plot of this film, other movies that come to mind are The 6th Day and The Island with both films dealing with the issue of cloning as well as showing the consequences of performing such an act. The plot for Gemini Man sounds both interesting and compelling on paper, but the overall execution of it never feels like it truly reaches its full potential. The film comes across as appearing confused about whether it desires to be an action-packed drama or a thrilling Sci-Fi story as the tone and mood of the film give uneven vibes. Given that this is an action-oriented story that requires heavy doses of suspense and tension, its strange that this project landed in the hands of Ang Lee as his work consists mostly of films, that revolve around period dramas based on previously established material which consist of deep character studies. Prior to Gemini Man, there wasn't anything on Lee's resume that suggests he was the perfect fit for this type of story. The same can also be said about Will Smith playing both lead roles. Smith despite giving a charming and well-acted performance, often feels miscast here with his clone not feeling compelling enough as an opponent to counterbalance Smith's human character. The issue is not just that the films plot isn't as well developed as it could've and should've been, it's that the film landed in the hands of the wrong director and actor. The film despite being a reasonably decent effort, lacks the intensity and edge the story needed to really make it work. It feels like a movie that would've fit in perfectly in the 1990's era of action movies as it has elements that pay homage to films such as Face-off and Assassins, while borrowing Sci-Fi elements from the much-underappreciated The 6th Day with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

       As far as the acting performances go, Will Smith does a good job playing both the main character and his younger self hunting him down. The key to this films success was always going to hinge on the type of main actor, both the studio and director was going to put in the main role as they must possess the talent to play two different versions of the same part. While Smith might not have been the perfect choice for the project, he handles the material well enough to make the story work. Here he brings his charisma to the role playing an assassin whose clearly being worn down by both life and age, while also showing strong dramatic range. One feels though that the role would've been better suited with another actor, who could properly convey the distinction between the two main characters better as Smith isn't completely convincing at being his younger assassin. Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a solid job playing the female CIA Agent, whose sent on a mission to keep an eye on the retired Henry yet inevitably ends up becoming his companion while on the run. Her chemistry with Smith is solid with them working well off each other despite her character feeling a bit cliched with her characters backstory as well as falling prey to the generic aspects of the screenplay. Clive Owen does a strong job playing the menacing Verris, the leader of the Gemini project as well as serving to be the main villain of the film. His character is strangely written despite Owens performance as the film can't seem to decide at times whether he's a bad guy or not. The film also includes notable supporting performances such as Benedict Wong, who holds his own against Smith and Winstead ultimately making the three work great together as a trio, along with Douglas Hodge and Ralph Brown, who feels a bit underused here but still manages to make his character appealing. As a whole, the cast does a solid job of delivering the best performances possible despite the films directing and script problems. One thing that moviegoers can always expect to see from an Ang Lee film is the actors in his films always manage to deliver strong performances regardless of the source material their working off with Gemini Man proving to be no exception in that category.

      In terms of the films directing, Ang Lee once again attempts to push the boundaries of the films technological aspects, while balancing it with strong storytelling. The problem with Ang Lee's directing here is that it feels too laid back given the type of story this film carries. The tone of the film feels completely off from what it should be with the government scenes giving off a Jason Bourne style vibe, along with the key action scenes including global-trotting fights, motorcycle chases, and shoot-outs. Whereas those scenes are ultimately well-shot and give audiences a glimpse of what Gemini Man should've ended up looking like, its the science fiction aspect of the story, that gives the film an odd tonal feel to it. Lee does well with delivering his trademark directing style which includes the use of colorful locations, strong cinematography, and allowing his actors enough freedom to play their roles and act out their scenes, but his desire to allow for the story to move at a relatively well-balanced pace, which jumped back and forth between the action and plot along with letting the actors get too relaxed in their roles, ultimately robs the film of the suspense and tension the story required. This film should've had the adrenaline rush of other solid action movies with similar themes and plots such as 1995's Assassins, The 6th Day with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and John Woo's 1997 blockbuster Face-Off, with the latter being a terrific example of blending top notch action with great acting, strong storytelling, and emotional drama, that hits home at the end. The difference between John Woo's directing with Face-Off and Ang Lee's work on Gemini Man, is Woo created not just an exciting experience with his movie, but also made it an emotional one as the audience cared about the main characters journey, especially when they swap faces and identities. With Gemini Man, the audience never gets the feeling that they're fully invested in the story presented here nor care about the characters on the same level. The films visual effects though are for the most part impressive with the young version of Smith coming across as being convincing look wise and stunning to look at with a couple of moments where the CGI work is shaky. A film that gives the de-aging work here a run for its money is the CGI work done on Sarah Connor in Terminator: Dark Fate.

      The films screenplay by David Benioff, Billy Ray, and Darren Lemke is serviceable though not as fully developed as it could've been. The problem here is not that the scriptwriting is terrible, it's that the story as interesting and intriguing as it sounds, just comes across as feeling rather generic. The script brings nothing new to the table with its plot, that hasn't been done before, and its best chance of success always was going to hinge on enhancing the character development to create an emotional journey, that complimented the films electrifying action set-pieces. This film can't decide whether it wants to be a Jason Bourne style action movie or an Sci-Fi action drama with a plot revolving around the theme of cloning much like The 6th Day. For a film that revolves around the theme of cloning, this film showed so little of how that process went into creating the multiple versions of Will Smith that's shown in the film. The stories science fiction roots are not well-developed here with the moments that show the filmmakers potentially heading in that direction, are detoured back to the generic Bourne style action scenes. The subplot involving Clive Owen's character Verris being revealed to be the stepdad of Smith's younger clone, feels forced as it's not explored well enough to genuinely shock audiences, nor feel younger Smith's anger, confusion, and pain when he learns of his stepdads lies and deception (One doesn't understand why instead of assassinating him in the end which he was trained to do with his older human self, he constantly cries and whines about being deceived). For a movie that revolved around the generic plot of an experienced government hitman/soldier deemed a loose end when they retire (The audience knows its not permanent obviously), the film needed to bring something fresh to the table with its concept as the plot as effective as it comes across, has already been done before numerous times with many results being stronger films.

      Gemini Man is a film that can best be described as a mixed bag as the film doesn't outright fail in its intentions, but it doesn't dazzle and blow away audiences with its storytelling like it was intended to. While it can be debated on what exactly led to this movie misfiring both critically and financially at the box office, the most obvious reasoning is that this film was placed in the hands of the wrong filmmaker as talented of a director as Ang Lee is, and should've gone to an actor who could've widened the distinction between the older/younger duo roles assigned to them. The film is a deeply flawed one as it isn't quite sure what it wants to be exactly with it juggling to be a SPY thriller mixed with a touch of SCI-FI to it in regards to cloning. Despite the glaring flaws it has, the movie still offers reasonably decent entertainment as the film has strong performances from its main cast, exciting action sequences, impressive and sharp CGI that's crisp for the most part with the moments where it does work feeling real almost like the audience is in the moment, beautiful cinematography, art-set decoration, and reasonable amounts of emotion sprinkled throughout the film, which make it truly feel like an Ang Lee directed piece. The film carries with it an intriguing final message that basically says that avoiding the grief caused by the death of military personnel is overall a good thing (Which is one of the main motivations for the older version of Smith's character wanting to retire), but also states that genetic manipulation such as cloning is not the right answer. The greatest tragedy with Gemini Man's overall execution is how little emphasis it places on the latter part of the films message. What could've been an even more thrilling story with a powerful message just settles for being passable entertainment, that feels more like a misfire than a groundbreaking achievement Smith and Lee were positioning the picture to be.

Final Verdict: As an action movie and Will Smith vehicle, Gemini Man succeeds on the level of being reasonably entertaining. However given the potential this film had to break new ground technologically and storytelling wise if it embraced more of its science fiction elements, the film largely disappoints as the story could've been much more.