I watched this movie "post slap" if you get what I mean, so this will have some influence on how I review this movie. This was a film that always seemed to evade me, probably because the name never stuck. There are a bunch of movies with Gemini in the title and all I ever saw was the motorbike scene which was as generic as they come.
Gemini Man stars Will "Slappy" Smith as some kind of undercover assassin who is duped into killing the wrong man. So he ends up on the run with some lady in tow, probably in order to tick a diversity box. You can chalk her character up to the "women doing what men do" trope. And of course she can beat up giant hairy muscular trained male killers and all she gets in return is a busted lip. Back to Smiths character and no spoilers as its in the trailers, he is being pursued by a younger version of himself. The silly part about this is that he is just as good as the original, despite them not having the same past life experience.
Its an actioner so there are plenty of action scenes, but they are very low stakes because its not as if Smith is going to be killed at any point. Not that this would be much of a loss as he isn't a very likable or even memorable character. There are now too many action roles like John Wick or Reacher, which have much more engaging stars. Smith at best can do slightly cheeky, but since his Oscars night performance, he has lost his halo.
While some sing the praises of Ang Lee, his action movies tend to flop. This is no exception, he is more of an arty director and this ain't that kind of movie.
Of course there were howls of derision about the CGI. That is easily remedied by not watching in ultra HD. On a standard definition TV its no longer an issue. Although it does look kind of weird.
This is at best an average actioner with little to no emotional investment and you will likely struggle to remember what you just watched a week from seeing it. Despite it likely having a huge budget.
And after the Chris Rock issue there will likely be even less incentive to seek this out when better options are available.
Gemini Man stars Will "Slappy" Smith as some kind of undercover assassin who is duped into killing the wrong man. So he ends up on the run with some lady in tow, probably in order to tick a diversity box. You can chalk her character up to the "women doing what men do" trope. And of course she can beat up giant hairy muscular trained male killers and all she gets in return is a busted lip. Back to Smiths character and no spoilers as its in the trailers, he is being pursued by a younger version of himself. The silly part about this is that he is just as good as the original, despite them not having the same past life experience.
Its an actioner so there are plenty of action scenes, but they are very low stakes because its not as if Smith is going to be killed at any point. Not that this would be much of a loss as he isn't a very likable or even memorable character. There are now too many action roles like John Wick or Reacher, which have much more engaging stars. Smith at best can do slightly cheeky, but since his Oscars night performance, he has lost his halo.
While some sing the praises of Ang Lee, his action movies tend to flop. This is no exception, he is more of an arty director and this ain't that kind of movie.
Of course there were howls of derision about the CGI. That is easily remedied by not watching in ultra HD. On a standard definition TV its no longer an issue. Although it does look kind of weird.
This is at best an average actioner with little to no emotional investment and you will likely struggle to remember what you just watched a week from seeing it. Despite it likely having a huge budget.
And after the Chris Rock issue there will likely be even less incentive to seek this out when better options are available.