Gemini Man (2019)
Directed by Ang Lee
Henry Brogan is an elite 51-year-old assassin who's ready to call it quits after completing his 72nd job. His plans get turned upside down when he becomes the target of a mysterious operative who can seemingly predict his every move. To his horror, Brogan soon learns that the man who's trying to kill him is a younger, faster, cloned version of himself.
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It’s a crackerjack set up for a B-movie romp, think “Face/Off” as a prime example.
If this film had been made in the 1990s by a filmmaker within Bruckheimer’s usual stable, this could have been a disposable but fun action sci-fi romp in the vein of Face/Off , but as is it doesn’t work as either a throwback or a modern blockbuster.
The gimmick, turning swiftly standard thanks to modern VFX — the script in some form has been circulating since 1997, contemporaneous with Face/Off’s release — is that both characters are played by Smith himself, de-aged with CGI for his younger iteration, with whom the older Smith often shares the frame.
It seems that de-aging CG technology was finally decent enough (more on that in a minute) for a green light, but the finished product is something like Face/Off without the gonzo energy.
The concept for Gemini Man has been in the works since 1997, the year of John Woo’s conceptually related Face/Off and, despite the high-tech innovations, feels exhumed from a pre-millennium time capsule.
It looks, on the surface, to be a vapid throwback that can’t walk in the massive shoes left behind by similar hits like Face/Off.
Like the meat-and-potatoes adventure plot that gave way to Avatar ’s state-of-the-art CG character effects, Will Smith’s run-and-gun shtick is capable test subject for Lee’s experiments.
I’m keenly aware that anyone pooh-poohing an innovative new technology – especially one that’s being used by Mr. Cameron for the surely inescapable (once they finally arrive) Avatar sequels – inevitably sounds like those clueless old farts they trot out in the chapter of the film history books about the transition from silent movies to talkies.
While watching Gemini Man, I instantly started hoping the Avatar movies (for just one example) would all be in 4K at 120 FPS with Dolby Vision and 3D.
The saddest thing about Gemini Man is that unlike The Tingler with its buzzing seats, or Polyester with its sniff-scratch cards, or Avatar with its awe inspiring 3D, there is nothing that will carry on in history about this film.
It’s as silly and mundane a set-up as any from 25 years ago, but it’s also perfectly fertile ground for Lee to cultivate the most forward-thinking action film since Avatar.
It makes a certain amount of sense with a project like Avatar, where you create a whole new world.
Running off of Darren Lemke’s original concept and script from 1997—like something Bruckheimer couldn’t bear to part with from his heyday—“Gemini Man” is incredibly dated wearing it’s ’90s tinge as if it were Leonardo DiCaprio’s hairstyle from “Titanic” in 2019.
Writers David Benioff (“Game of Thrones”), Billy Ray (“The Hunger Games”) and Darren Lemke (“Turbo”) globe trot from Cartagena to Budapest, acquiring more passport stamps than “Bourne” movies, while the sci-fi premise recalls James Cameron’s “The Terminator” (1984), Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report” (2000) and Rian Johnson’s “Looper” (2012), which deserve more points for originality.
Whether it’s a surface kinship to Looper—another movie about a hitman at literal war with himself—or the movie’s allusions to Terminator 2: Judgment Day and First Blood, Gemini Man is dramatically generic.
It’s more Terminator 3 than T2 .
Then, 30 or 40 minutes into the movie, a younger version of Brogan — later revealed to be a good-old-fashioned clone — is sent to tie up loose ends, with older Smith the next one to be hit (Looper much?).
If you want to see a good movie in which a character meets his younger self, watch the 2012 film Looper .
In particular the premise echoes Rian Johnson’s 2012 film Looper (though this is presumably coincidental given that the script has been kicking around since the 1990s with rewrites by many hands).
Rian Johnson’s Looper (2012), for example, executed a similar idea with more finesse and wit.
If Rian Johnson can get us to accept Joseph Gordon-Levitt in prosthetics as a young Bruce Willis in Looper, it’s fair to say we’ll buy any two actors in the right story.
Looper examined the premise in far more depth, albeit with time travel laced in.
In Gemini Man, Smith doesn’t even get to quote John Wayne from True Grit: “You remind me of me!”
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Lee once again is using the high frame rate he deployed in “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” (which I liked more than most) but it’s even more distracting this time around.
Matching his 2016 effort on Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ang Lee shot this film in full 4K HD for large scale 3D at a 120 fps clip, exponentially higher than the standard 24 fps rate.
Lee’s previous film, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk , harnessed the intense smoothness provided by this high frame rate to suggest the eerie sense of hyperreality experienced by its title character, an Iraq War veteran who has post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lee, a chameleonic director, has in recent years developed a habit of turning movies into tech demos, experimenting with elaborate visual effects simulacra in Life Of Pi and high-frame-rate, high-resolution digital 3D in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk .
Ang Lee’s recent obsession with digital cinema continues in Gemini Man, marking the second time for the internationally renowned Taiwanese director after the tepid Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk three years ago.
Ang Lee’s ardour for the high frame rate 3D presentation has not gone away despite the failure of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.
The film is directed by Ang Lee, who is certainly no stranger to heavy effects-laden films, having won multiple Oscars for 2012’s Life of Pi.
Directed by Ang Lee ("Life of Pi," "Brokeback Mountain," "Hulk," "Crouching Tiger, HIdden Dragon," "Sense and Sensibility").
Academy Award-winning cinematographer Dion Beebe (Chicago) shot them bright and tight while long-time Lee editing collaborator and fellow two-time Oscar nominee Tim Squyres (Life of Pi) stitched the work together with deft pacing.
Lee, a chameleonic director, has in recent years developed a habit of turning movies into tech demos, experimenting with elaborate visual effects simulacra in Life Of Pi and high-frame-rate, high-resolution digital 3D in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk .
His 3D “Life of Pi” was mesmerizing but technology didn’t help his next project, “Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk,” the first feature film using 120 frames-per-second.
Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage and Brad Pitt were just some of the names attached to the project before it eventually ended up in the hands of Life of Pi director Ang Lee and star Will Smith .
Directed by Ang Lee ("Life of Pi," "Brokeback Mountain," "Hulk," "Crouching Tiger, HIdden Dragon," "Sense and Sensibility").
Films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi stand amongst some of the most defining movies of this generation, yet in the same time frame he’s made critical and/or commercial flubs like Hulk , Taking Woodstock and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk .
His work is always bold and ambitious, even when it doesn’t work (looking at you Hulk) and the comparative modesty of his latest effort is bound to feel like a bit of a letdown.
Ang Lee is one of those great directors who has made a lot of terrible films: The Ice Storm, Hulk, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, and now Gemini Man, a dusty artifact of a script livened up with bleeding-edge technology.
Credit Gemini Man at least for allowing Lee another shot post- Hulk at eliciting human emotion through a digital simulacrum.
Out of all the previous entries in Ang Lee's eclectic filmography, his newest movie, Gemini Man , hews the closest to his 2003 comic book adaptation Hulk.
Directed by Ang Lee ("Life of Pi," "Brokeback Mountain," "Hulk," "Crouching Tiger, HIdden Dragon," "Sense and Sensibility").
Lee, on the other hand, had exceptional works like Brokeback Mountain and Lust, Caution in his recent history.
Lee, once the man who gave us “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain,” seems to be tumbling down a high-tech rabbit hole.
It’s disheartening to see someone as talented as Lee (a two-time Oscar winner for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi) messing around with something as superficial and nonsensical as Gemini Man.
Films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi stand amongst some of the most defining movies of this generation, yet in the same time frame he’s made critical and/or commercial flubs like Hulk , Taking Woodstock and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk .
Lee is a proven maker of wonders with such gems as The Wedding Banquet, Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but here his embrace of new cool cinematic stuff (as with Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Life of Pi) turns this thriller into a one-punch fighter.
In his previous career, the Ang Lee of “Eat Drink Man Woman” and “Brokeback Mountain” seemed like the last filmmaker who would get obsessed with tech.
Regrettably , the finer sensibilities Lee employed on the more sedate dramas he is known for ( Brokeback Mountain, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, Eat Drink Man Woman , etc) are not in evidence here.
Surprisingly, given he's made such superb films as The Ice Storm and Life of Pi , Ang Lee seems bored with his own story.
Ang Lee is one of those great directors who has made a lot of terrible films: The Ice Storm , Hulk , Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk , and now Gemini Man , a dusty artifact of a script livened up with bleeding-edge technology.
Lee, who has jumped from The Ice Storm to Hulk to Brokeback Mountain to Life of Pi over the years, is not just invested in the technology.
As Robert Zemeckis went from the high-spirited craftsmanship of “Back to the Future” and “Forrest Gump” to the soulless motion-capture experiments of “The Polar Express” and “ Welcome to Marwen ,” so Ang Lee has recently traded in the humanity of “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “Brokeback Mountain” for the chimera of high frame rates.
His track record may be inconsistent, but anyone willing to take on The Ice Storm, Ride with the Devil, Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is clearly a director up for any challenge.
Regrettably , the finer sensibilities Lee employed on the more sedate dramas he is known for ( Brokeback Mountain, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, Eat Drink Man Woman , etc) are not in evidence here.
Lee is a proven maker of wonders with such gems as The Wedding Banquet, Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but here his embrace of new cool cinematic stuff (as with Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Life of Pi) turns this thriller into a one-punch fighter.
Perhaps the Gemini project could be used to send the Ang Lee who made “ The Wedding Banquet ” to visit the Ang Lee who made this.
Perhaps it’s time for Ang Lee to return to more personal, intimate stories like The Wedding Banquet or a rich and layered canvas like he found in Life of Pi or the stunning balletic action of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon .
The latest from director Ang Lee (Life of Pi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Gemini Man is actually based on a screenplay that has been bouncing around Hollywood for more than 20 years.
Anyone who’s seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi is aware of his talents.
His track record may be inconsistent, but anyone willing to take on The Ice Storm, Ride with the Devil, Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is clearly a director up for any challenge.
Films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi stand amongst some of the most defining movies of this generation, yet in the same time frame he’s made critical and/or commercial flubs like Hulk , Taking Woodstock and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk .
(See the fascinatingly horrific 2013 film The Congress for an ambitious extrapolation of where this sort of entertainment technology may take us.
What’s so weird about this in Gemini Man is that the movie feels like a proof of concept for something that’s been floated before (most notably in the bizarre 2014 film The Congress ): the inevitability that someday, when the technology is good enough, likenesses of actors will replace the actors themselves.
The relationship between Junior and Clay (which I won’t reveal) serves as an attempt at emotional connection, but their entire plotline plays like a Hitler-less version of Ira Levin ’s “The Boys From Brazil.”
I found myself giddy over the meta-transparency of the backlot, but this is not John Wick .
Partly being a John Wick impersonator, and equally trying to pull a Mission Impossible feel, Gemini Man feels stuck between genres and tones.
That’s fine, but when you put it up against more technically accomplished films like the John Wick series or the last few Mission: Impossible films, Gemini Man can’t compete.
It’s a thin premise filled with stock characters, wooden dialogue, and a seemingly amateurish vibe that, in today's era, rips off “John Wick” and “Jason Bourne.”
Instead of the kinetic baroque of the John Wick movies or the IMAX-scale daredevilry of the later Mission: Impossible s (to name two other recent examples in which smart, sturdy action filmmaking doubles as star text), Gemini Man goes for the clean and energetic, with moments of weightless, near-airborne movement that are probably the closest Lee has come to recapturing the wire-assisted highs of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon .
There’s a motorcycle chase scene that should be embarrassed to exist in a post-Fallout world, some John Wick-wanna-be gun ballet, and extra gummy CG-loaded fisticuffs but all these action beat accouterments are in service of old Will Smith meeting young Will Smith, them punching and shooting at each other, and then ultimately teaming up.
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In centering its action melodrama around the confrontation between its main character and a duplicated version of himself, Ang Lee’s Gemini Man joins some dubious company: the forgotten Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Replicant, the late-pre-governor-era Arnold Schwarzenegger film The Sixth Day, and Richard Lester’s abortive superhero sequel Superman 3.
As Robert Zemeckis went from the high-spirited craftsmanship of “Back to the Future” and “Forrest Gump” to the soulless motion-capture experiments of “The Polar Express” and “ Welcome to Marwen ,” so Ang Lee has recently traded in the humanity of “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “Brokeback Mountain” for the chimera of high frame rates.
But in closeup, while we’re not talking The Polar Express or Beowulf levels of uncomfortable, the shots of Junior full-on with his face taking up the majority of the screen are still undeniably creepy.
Just like when Robert Zemeckis became obsessed with the idea of perfecting motion capture following The Polar Express , and seeing diminishing returns in his filmography as a result, Ang Lee is increasingly abandoning character dramas to experiment with uncanny valley technology.
As Robert Zemeckis went from the high-spirited craftsmanship of “Back to the Future” and “Forrest Gump” to the soulless motion-capture experiments of “The Polar Express” and “ Welcome to Marwen ,” so Ang Lee has recently traded in the humanity of “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “Brokeback Mountain” for the chimera of high frame rates.
As Robert Zemeckis went from the high-spirited craftsmanship of “Back to the Future” and “Forrest Gump” to the soulless motion-capture experiments of “The Polar Express” and “ Welcome to Marwen ,” so Ang Lee has recently traded in the humanity of “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and “Brokeback Mountain” for the chimera of high frame rates.