Gemini Man

Gemini Man aka the movie you know from the trailer that showed Will Smith fighting Will Smith. Some of you saw this in theaters, many saw it in 3D and then many saw it also in 120 frames per second. I however did not see this movie in theaters, why? I honestly do not recall what I did besides seeing this movie, I do remember that I had grown tired of seeing the trailer for it. Usually when I see a trailer played that many times its over compensating for the quality of the movie. Now lets talk about director Ang Lee's most recent technology experiment, I say that because to me each of his movies is like a little kid who got into a film expo saw something he felt was cutting edge and said I want to make a movie around that technology, here it is de-aging. By now we have seen de-aging effects being used quite often Samuel Jackson in Captain Marvel and several actors in The Irishman to name a couple. You know from the trailers that your going to see Will Smith fight a younger Will Smith, we know from the context in the trailer, Will Smith knows nothing of this other him that means its not a son, but a clone. Ang Lee could of went the way of The 6th Day where Arnold Schwarzenegger fights a clone of him self that is the same age, however he chose to go with Will fighting a younger version of himself, this of course adds a little more to the humanistic side of the story which is cloning a person and then raising that clone in the shadow of the real person. Before we get into what I thought of the de-aging, lets talk about the actual movie, Will Smith plays an exceptionally skilled sharpshooter that has over 70 kills under his belt, which is starting to weigh on him and decides it is time to retire. There are those that are not happy he's leaving and then there are some that consider him a loose string that needs to be plucked away from their ulterior motive. Enter Clive Owen the head of an elite group of a black ops paramilitary group named Gemini, there you go now you get the title, because you guessed it Will Smith 2.0 works for them. After a couple associates of Smith's are off'd he puts the puzzle together quickly, gathers up Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong, then quickly escapes with unknowingly a clone in tow. This is where I feel Ang Lee likes his toys, because the plot it's not intricate and you have some interesting characters though we never get to spend time with them because Ang Lee is making a Bourne lite movie he's not used to making. There are a couple decent action scenes notable the motorcycle chase and a fight in some catacombs, though I felt like I'm watching a scene designed to be Smith v Smith. Will say, look its a different use of a will, acting wise to me everyone did well especially Benedict Wong, loved his character. [Spoiler Alert] There is not just one clone and the first one looks better than the second one, though many of the close up of the clone there was just something off and I felt it was de-aging via CG because there is just something missing in the eyes and around the cheeks his face took on a putty like look to me. The issues I had with it though, I do acknowledge that Ang Lee is taking chances and giving us something new not in the form of story telling but deliverance of the material with the high frame rate that was a very big thing he wanted it shown in theaters with, I did not see his one with the frame rate though I have seen others and it just looks too real not cinematic for my tastes almost like I'm watching a 4K video on YouTube its almost like too clean if that makes sense. I wasn't challenged intellectually with this movie, but that is not to say I was bored, I think this movie got a little more negativity than it deserves largely due to technical choices. It entertained me throughout, which is all we can ask for a movie truly to do and that was what they started as a way to entertain which this does, good example of always watch a movie to make your opinion. I had very negative outlook for this movie, largely due to watching reviews, I am a sucker for clone movies whether good or bad, I enjoy the ethical debate they instill into the movies. C.