Gemini Man
Gemini Man
Gemini Man
Directed by:
Ang LeeCinematography:
Dion BeebeComposer:
Lorne BalfeCast:
Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Douglas Hodge, Ralph Brown, Linda Emond, Ilia Volok, E.J. Bonilla, David Shae, Theodora Miranne (more)VOD (2)
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Gemini Man is an innovative action-thriller starring Will Smith as Henry Brogan, an elite assassin, who is suddenly targeted and pursued by a mysterious young operative that seemingly can predict his every move. (Paramount Home Entertainment)
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It was Vidocq in 2001, it was Public Enemies by Mann, Gamer by Neveldine/Taylor, or the entire Hobbit trilogy. These are all pioneers of the digital barrier in film who, however much they were previously blamed for it, have broached uncharted territory for others without the constraints of film stock and twenty-five frames per second. And now this Segal-esque action flick will join them. Gemini Man runs at up to 120 FPS under specified conditions, which to the unprepared eye can seem like an incredible abomination. And an abomination it is. The action scenes are still manageable if, following my example, you spend a fair amount of your time in virtual worlds (and the film tries to identify with the viewer in this way through various first-person shots), but the civilian scenes are harder to handle. The over-sharpness and huge resolution struggle with how easily artificial lighting reveals and discards any other planes in the shot. Indeed, if the distant object is in focus at the same rate as the foreground object, the image starts to look two-dimensional instead of spatial because you’re already so used to working visually with the simple limits of your eyes. If the filmmakers' need to increase the number of frames per second is motivated by a desire to bring the viewer closer to what is happening on the screen, this ignores the fact that human attention, sight, and perception also work subjectively. Good action scenes in movies take advantage of this, and in a field of constantly changing and frenetic situations, they throw us keys to fix our attention on what they want us to see. Gemini Man feels like it doesn't need such keys. It settles for focusing the action to the maximum and all it wants us to do is watch. Then again, the action scenes themselves aren't bad at all (except for some really gimmicky special effects), but they don't give the impression that there are live people in them. Which is a problem with a story about hard-hitting killers who are supposed to bleed and suffer. _____ Interestingly, I didn't want to write about this at all originally, because more than the technical side of it, I was struck by the fact that it's used to reveal the utter exhaustion of former Hollywood first man Will Smith. He looks more tired and useless here than any contemporary Bruce Willis, and the triple-digit frame rate mercilessly never wavers from him. The man is no longer even able to enter a room naturally, and the fact that the film is all about him and his WETA clone is more fascinating to me than all the technological advances demonstrated. I know the Chinese don't want much more from their domesticated acting whores, but here we're at the point where it’s unpleasant to wind up with a clearly uncomfortable actor being in the same piece of work. It's no secret that the script for this gunk existed back in the 90s, and for quite some time Nicolas Cage was attached to it. It's amusing then to see how apparently the only change from its original form was the addition of a female character. She stands confusedly in the background for a good half of the scenes, not knowing what to do, while the two Will Smiths talk about the scars on their souls. This makes it evocative of when one of the players doesn't make it to a D&D gaming session and you have to play out the scenario with the other players and pretend like his character is there in the story with them. And so it goes on and on. Every word is a gem: "It's not a gun time. It's coffee time.", "I cannot sleep. There is where the ghosts are.", all spoken by an actor who, with each syllable, becomes more and more aware of how he's at the end of his career. If David A. Prior was in on the original script, I would believe it. And that was honestly the thing I enjoyed most about the film. It's like watching an old Cannon film knowing all the risks involved. Do you laugh at tabloid stories about poor people who win a hundred million in the lottery and spend it on booze, dope, and hookers in two years? This poor bastard won 140 million from the deadly Bruckheimer-Chinese combo and blew it in a few months on the cinematic equivalent of toluene with a crocodile. Crazy times.
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What happens to me lately is that I watch actors that I really liked as a kid in movies side by side with their own kids that look just like them in ‘90s. Kind of deja vu but it is like that. It is so evident in Gemini Man for example that it was filmed by someone experienced and that Ang Lee proved himself already during the ‘90s. As far as contemporary movies go it is more of a routine flick than something worth remembering. Action scenes are good, special effects are OK, dialogues not so good and story line is at the level of a five-year old. But OK, Hollywood wants it that way, and therefore I’m rating it with 3 stars and I think that after a few months I will forget all about the Gemini Man without a single regret.
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The intention here was to elevate a simple theme like that of a Van Damme movie to the level of a clever, emotional action drama with a social subtext, with the help of a top scriptwriter and “artistic” director. And it didn’t really work. The digitally rejuvenated Will Smith is a WTF character – he’s supposed to go through an intense internal struggle requiring a quality acting performance and, paradoxically, delivers the worst “acting” of the movie with his Shrek-like facial expressions. Despite its ambitious plan, the film is also dragged down by unrealistic digital action scenes that are reminiscent of a Fast & Furious theme park. And that’s too bad, since it had such a promising start with the still cool Will and nice chemistry between him and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
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The advertisement for Gemini Man in 3D HFR format lured me to the cinema and I was curious to see what a rejuvenated Will Smith would look like "in real life". More than once during the plot, I felt a certain genre confusion and wasn't entirely sure if the film itself knew what it wanted to be. What we're dealing with here is an action-packed sci-fi about human cloning, peppered with the odd quip and romantic reference here and there, while at times superficially trying to be something better within the sci-fi genre. As far as the action sequences are concerned, I have no complaints, the motorcycle chase, the duel among the skulls and the final fight were flawless – though I must point out that at times it looked a little too artificial due to the picture quality, but I'm still glad I decided to go to the cinema to see this particular format. The visuals of the rejuvenated Smith were indeed impressive, I was a little put off by the small space for Benedict Wong and puzzled by the rather bland ending. It's certainly not a wasted two hours in the cinema, but at the same time it's a one-off affair that will fade from your mind within a week.
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I didn’t believe Hollywood was still able to produce pure action blockbusters like this. Despite all the inevitable changes during its production, this is clearly a Bruckheimer premise from the 90s in its full glory, at the centre of which there is a protagonist who’s exceptionally proficient in the liquidation of villains, a potentially romantic line that is fully pushed aside, and a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, but without the burden of a social or political context. The narrative creates a simple hyperreality where only the two sides of the conflict exist, and everything else is unimportant. Using pure images and digital effects, Ang Lee emphasises this concept to create an alternative world that I had no trouble accepting and let myself be absorbed in at least at the level of a proper action experience. The action itself is not static or forced, but fairly diverse in the way it moves the plot forward, and the digital look is not painful to watch – it actually fits into the concept. Actually, there’s not that much action, it relies more on the interactions of the characters, who direct an otherwise simple story. This is not revolutionary genre nonsense, the story is too standard for that and the way it develops some of the motifs is unoriginal and telegraphic, but I was impressed by the old-fashioned feel and, after a long time, Lee gave me 3D comfort where I can see a promising visual future (though I understand that many viewers won’t like this hyperrealistic style). Personally, I expected it to be considerably funnier in a 90s way – all that seriousness didn’t work on me at times.
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Photo © Paramount Pictures
