Gemini Man (2019): English Movie
Duration: 1 hour 57 minutes, Genre: Mystery, Action, Suspense, and Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13 (for violence and action throughout, and brief strong language)
The older version of a hit-man being chased by his younger version forms the format of the narration of this flick directed by Ang Lee.
It is worth noting that the film’s storyboard was under making for nearly 2 decades while a busload of stars as Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Clint East Wood, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Sean Connery etc were considered to play the lead(s)!
The film which was premiered at the Zurich Film Festival with Will Smith as the protagonist!
Smith plays Henry Brogan a highly-skilled assassin who has been in the trade for quite a long time that too successfully! Of late, he has been contemplating retirement after coming to a conclusion that enough is enough!
Just about that time, he also finds out that his own department is corrupt-laden & he is not in the favour of one but many of his colleagues!
Not before long he realises that a hit-man has been let loose with the sole objective of hunting him down! To his greatest shock, he is taken aback to know that the hit-man is easily predicting his moves & hence is always ahead of him!
Brogan soon finds out that the hit-man is deadlier than him & is none other than the younger version of his own-self!
He is now pitted against a fierce battle with a ‘Junior’ who has age at his favour while being more skilled & talented!
Needless to mention, Ang Lee in staging & executing action sequences & the film sizzles with such scenes.
Even the technology of de-ageing is intact in the screenplay but somewhere somehow something is missing & hence the film doesn’t exactly get rounded up in proper shape, leaving much to be desired, finally!
Themes involving cloning has been attempted earlier a number of times but there is nothing new or novel here!
Another demeaning feature is the fact is that the plot is predictable & evidently no effort has obviously gone in to make it different!
Will Smith is adequate but fails to fill the bill appropriately!
Clive Owen as his Boss creates a flutter.
Well-timed humour has always been Smith’s USP but why the makers haven’t thought of infusing humour into the otherwise dull script is a mystery!
Can be visited one for the sake of Smith & Lee!
-R.S.Prakash
Film Journalist, Critic & Historian