Gemini Man.. oh man

(2019)
PG-13 | 1h 57min | Action, Drama, Sci-Fi | 11 October 2019 (USA)

Synopsis: An over-the-hill hitman faces off against a younger clone of himself.

Review: If ever a film had the potential to be fantastic it is the new Sci-Fi action flick, GEMINI MAN. Directed by Ang Lee and starring Will Smith with a supporting cast of Clive Owen and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. An intriguing concept with plenty of opportunity for heart pounding action. What could go wrong? Surprisingly, a lot.

Henry (Will Smith) is ready to hang up his scope after a lifetime of taking out bad guys as a government sniper. His life of ease is short lived when the people he once served decide to kill him. Now on the run with the help of an old army pal (Benedict Wong) and a young intelligence officer (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) Henry must find out who is behind the plot. Things become even more complicated when Henry meets the young assassin and discovers it is an exact clone of himself.

Let’s stop right there for a moment. This all sounds well and good but getting from point A to point B is a meandering road full of plot holes, boring dialogue, and more “well that was convenient” moments than I care to count. Rethinking the journey in hindsight makes it even more head shaking. You realize that very little of the characters actions and decisions make sense. This is not the fault of the actors. Ang Lee has to take some blame as director but the weight of the issue falls on the screen writing. It really is a hot mess.

I wish I could say that the bad writing was overshadowed by wall to wall action scenes. But other than a few mediocre shoot outs there is very little of the block buster action we would expect. Lee seems to focus more on his wheelhouse of emotional drama and inner turmoil of the human spirit. He does these things beautifully but they are out of place here. There just isn’t time to unpack everything that he wanted to show. Plus this is supposed to be an action flick; or so we were told. The only super cool sequence is a motorcycle chase most of which we already saw in the trailer. Instead of that being a tasty sample it turned out to be the entire meal.

The effects were solid. The much younger Will Smith was smooth and glitch free. The interaction between the animated character and the flesh and blood ones is totally believable. Of course the decision to make “junior” act the way he does is another story. He is a tad too weepy for my taste.

So we are back to the script. It never bodes well when you see a team of writers working on a screenplay. Gemini Man has three that were credited. I personally think it is very hard to get a cohesive story line with fluid transitions when you have multiple minds and ideas in the mix. Writing is too important to be pieced together. And this one felt very stitched and mended. With horrible results.

My hope when watching was that this was based on a Sci-Fi novel from the 60s or 70s. The concept would be fun to visit in a novel where the writer could take his time fleshing out all the hows and whys. Though slightly related to the 70s NBC drama series which was loosely connected to the H.G  Wells novel The Invisible Man… well, the link was too thin to reexamine.

GEMINI MAN is a grand concept that could have taken advantage of today’s technology to deliver an instant classic. Instead it is instantly forgettable.