I didn’t have the greatest of expectations for Gemini Man, but after hearing a fair bit on the film, I thought I’d see what I made of it myself. And to be fair to the film, it did exceed preconceptions. It’s unexpectedly funny (“My government lied to me and then tried to kill me!” “Ah, in Russia, we call that Tuesday”), and there’s some intense action sequences running throughout the film.
My main issue is just how this is filmed. If you’ve already seen Gemini Man and wondered why these amazing action sequences just didn’t look right – it’s because they’ve been filmed at 120 frames a second, where most films normally shoot at about 25. Any filmmaker wants ‘smooth’ sequences, but making them this fast just feels clunky and actually uneasy on the eye.
Then there is ‘young’ Will Smith. Now I finally understand why there’s not much of him in the adverts – his first few, albeit brief, appearances during fight scenes, actually have some impressive de-aging. It really does looks like a younger Will Smith/Henry. Unfortunately the quality drops for the second half, yet this is when he has the most screen-time, and it just becomes disappointingly distracting.
"All in all, it’s a good concept, but poorly executed"
All in all, it’s a good concept, but poorly executed. My advice? Save your student loan and watch Living With Yourself, featuring Paul Rudd and Paul Rudd (you can never have too much Paul Rudd) on Netflix if you’re in the mood to find out why cloning people is a bad idea.
Rating: 3/5
