Once the initial shock of the twist has worn off, revelatory conversations are paced with a total lack of tension, acting as wooden narrative roadblocks rather than crucial words between actual living, thinking human beings. The camera keeps motion aligned to action, rather than atmosphere, and in the dizzy POV shots atop both Henry and Junior’s motorcycles, it’s breathtaking fun.īut it’s the script that fails the concept. It comes before any kind of stilted confrontation with words, exemplifying just how immersive video game-type visuals can be when done well. In the first brawl between Smith and Smith 2.0 (dubbed Junior), the breadth of Lee’s skill is put to the test with astonishing results. By multiplying life, “Gemini Man” too often merely dilutes it. But once Lee establishes what he can do with technology in “Gemini Man” – and it’s a lot – it becomes difficult to refocus emotion onto anything more human. Being able to count the individual hairs on Will Smith’s arm, noticing the dancing specks of light from a fire, following the specific trajectory of a fly before it’s swatted – these are integral parts of the film’s agenda, just as the panoramic beauty of an orange sunset over Buttermilk Sound feels fitting for the man who won four Oscars for the marvelous visual tapestries of “Life of Pi”.
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How did he recover? By diving headfirst into an explosive action movie in which Will Smith fights Will Smith – and using the very same technology, amped-up and still the main event.įrom the very beginning of “Gemini Man,” Lee’s passion for visual minutiae is impressive to the point of distraction. The ambitious decision didn’t quite convince at the time, with that film being scorned for losing in emotional depth what it gained in visual detail.
Lee previously used the high frame rate in 2016 with “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” the first feature to showcase the technology.
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Smith plays Henry Brogan, a 51-year-old revered government assassin who wants to retire. On paper, “Gemini Man” tends to all three concerns, but in practice the film is impenetrable beyond its technological clout. For Lee, it seems to make sense – the film welds concerns that have colored a number of his projects: the debate of Nature v Nurture the alienation of a fraying man the challenge of what digital filmmaking can do. The story was conceived in 1997 (Tony Scott was billed to direct) and was tossed between directors and re-assigned lead actors (including Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson and Clint Eastwood) until it landed with Skydance Media in 2016 and Ang Lee signed on to direct in 2017. “ Gemini Man” is a baffling product born from a bizarre idea.
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