Mark Reviews Movies: GEMINI MAN

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 10, 2019

There are a few good ideas in Gemini Man, but that's too many in this case. The screenplay (written by David Benioff, Billy Ray, and Darren Lemke) presents those ideas, but within the framework of a pretty routine action story, they don't have time to breathe, let alone be developed or explored.

The movie itself, directed by Ang Lee, is admittedly ambitious—not only because it uses a nifty premise for a chase movie to address concepts like identity and regret, but also because that premise requires some complicated visual effects. The setup is that a government assassin, targeted for "retirement" after he decides to retire in a more literal sense, is being hunted by himself. Specifically, the man assigned to kill the assassin is the assassin's clone, raised by the amoral head of a paramilitary force, who believes that soldiers should be perfect killing machines—devoid of pain, weariness, and guilt.

The assassin, named Henry Brogan, is played by Will Smith, and after some running and shooting and fighting (as well as a lot of exposition-reciting), we get a second Smith, looking younger and moving much more spryly. This is the latest example of what the effects industry has started to call "de-aging," which here means that we can have two Will Smiths chasing and fighting each other across various exotic locales. More pertinently, though, it means that an assassin who has seen a lot of terrible things, played by an older Smith, can tell his younger self, created by means of performance-capture and some convincing-enough effects, that the path of killing leads nowhere good.

The big conflict within the story, of course, is between the two men—the original and his clone. As a movie, though, the conflict here is between the apparent need to make that narrative conflict visceral, by way of chases and fighting, and the clear desire to dig deeper into the underlying ideas that this story raises.

After an introductory assassination (Henry shoots a man from a distance while the target is on a speeding train), the 51-year-old Henry has had enough of his work. His skills aren't quite what they used to be, and in his career, that could mean an innocent casualty. His insomnia is getting worse, and he has trouble looking at himself in the mirror.

The plot features an elaborate conspiracy involving the government agency that Henry works for and Gemini, a private military outfit run by Clay Verris (Clive Owen). Basically, Henry learns that, while he killed the right man on that train, the target wasn't, as Henry was told, a terrorist. Somehow, in a way that's never quite explained, all of this leads to the agency and Clay teaming up to take out any loose ends—from Henry to everyone he has spoken to about the mission.

This includes Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an agent who has been assigned to keep an eye on Henry. The two join up with Baron (Benedict Wong), a pilot and old Marine buddy of Henry's, who takes them to a coastal city in Colombia to hide.

After a lot of build-up, with plenty of expository dialogue being said and repeated while the actors almost behave like they're just being filmed on vacation, Henry's clone arrives. The first confrontation between the assassin and his genetic duplicate is pretty dynamic—going from a cat-and-mouse game, taking potshots at each other in the streets and on rooftops, to a chase that eventually puts them both on motorcycles.

The clone is fast and nimble, using the bike itself as a bludgeon, although it's pretty obvious that, while both of the participants are being aided by visual effects, the younger guy is definitely just a digital creation. As a director, Lee is pretty nimble himself, so while all of the quick cuts and obscured staging are obvious, we barely care within the intensity of the action. The visual effects used to make the younger Henry, called Junior by Clay, are impressive, especially in the constant dimness surrounding the majority of his appearances (A very late scene, which takes place in broad daylight, shows exactly why Lee keeps the digital character moving or in darkness for most of the movie).

Save for the plot's central gimmick and the technical trickery, there really isn't much to this story, these characters, or the movie's themes. Given the often lengthy interludes between action sequences, it's obvious that Lee and the screenwriters believe they are touching upon ethical and moral notions about cloning and combat. They certainly do touch upon them, with a scene in which Junior confronts his creator/"father" about his nature and how he was nurtured, as well as later scenes when Henry and his clone have at least some downtime to talk. By the time all of this arises, though, the story's momentum is already leading toward a climactic showdown.

There simply isn't time for the movie to examine these ideas. Gemini Man is, first and foremost, an action movie with a clever premise and a focus on the technical wizardry required to make it happen. It teases the potential to be more, but ultimately, the movie settles on being nothing special.

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