Gemini Man (2019)

Director: Ang Lee

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Runtime: 117 Minutes

Main Cast: Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Douglas Hodge, Ralph Brown, Linda Emond, Ilia Volok, E.J. Bonilla

Plot: Henry Brogan is the best hitman his Government has, but as he’s getting older, the job is eating away at him, and he retires. He discovers his last target wasn’t who he was told he was however, and now he’s on the run whilst also trying to uncover the truth.

My Thoughts: I wanted to start this section with a summary of how Will Smith’s movies have been received terribly as of late, but Rotten Tomatoes gave me something more interesting to mull over, check this out:
Gemini Man – Tomatometer (25%) Audience Rating (84%)
Bright – Tomatometer (28%) Audience Rating (84%)
Aladdin – Tomatometer (57%) Audience Rating (94%)
Turns out only the critics seem to hate Will Smith movies after all! I’ve always liked Will Smith, I tend to put him in the same category in my mind as Dwayne Johnson. When I watch their movies I’m not expecting a masterpiece, but I know I’ll be entertained.

I didn’t enjoy Gemini Man as much as I wanted to, but I have to blame a lot of that on the trailer, which has been heavily pushed in the UK for months now. It honestly shows off the entire plot, and for a movie thin on plot to begin with, it didn’t leave much to enjoy when it came to going to the cinema. There are some breathtaking action sequences, sure, but the rest felt mostly like filler. I think most would enjoy this more if they went in blind.

At the end of the day, although I was disappointed that there weren’t any big surprises along the way, the cast and the action was enough to keep me happy for the runtime and that was enough for me on a Sunday evening.

Best Bit: One good thing to come from Gemini Man is a showcase of how fast computer technology is moving. Remember in Rogue One, how obviously CGI’d Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing were? I had no idea, but the younger Will Smith was created in the same way. I thought it was the de-aging technology that was used in Captain Marvel but no, and the difference in quality in just 3 years is quite baffling!

Worst Bit: *SPOILERY SECTION* So perhaps I lied when I said the whole plot was in the trailer. There’s a little twist at the end, but it’s so obvious that it’s coming that it ended up being quite a comical moment. Know what would have been a good twist? Original Will Smith finding out that he was a clone, too! Hollywood, sign me up, yo.

Fun Trivia: From 2003 to 2010 Nicolas Cage was attached to the project. It was finally due to go into production in 2008, but Cage convinced Jerry Bruckheimer to work on the live-action remake The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010) instead.
I don’t know whether to be thankful or gutted after reading this!

My Rating: I heard you like Will Smith, so I put 2 and a half Will Smiths in my blog post about a Will Smith movie starring Will Smith…