If I had to describe this movie with one word, that word would be “dud”

Thankfully I’m able to use an entire review to tell you just how bad and bland I thought this film was. Most of this is my opinion, but when I tell you that some of the production value was awful, take it as fact. Like low budget, made for tv awful. I didn’t think Will Smith could sink any lower than After Earth, but Gemini Man may have that one beat! I thought it was weird that this movie wasn’t heavily promoted, being a Will Smith movie. I did some research and found out that the film had 20 years worth of development issues, and when Skydance acquired the rights it was shot quickly last year and quietly put out this year. That may be part of the reason why this movie had a lot of problems. The plot isn’t anything profound, but what could have ended up being a decent popcorn action flick didn’t turn out that way. I wasn’t sure if this was action or drama, or both, but the execution didn’t grab me. Smith plays Henry, an expert assassin for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Henry is set to retire and wants to live a peaceful life, but he finds out he is being watched. Then he finds out he was set up as a fall guy and cloned. Of course he has to find out why, which means confronting this clone and clearing his name. The “agency turning on its own agent” theme has been done before, which isn’t a bad thing, but this movie failed to be interesting. You ever eat dry toast for two hours? Probably not. Why would you? That’s what watching this movie felt like. Eating dry toast. No butter. No jelly. No water. Just dry toast clumping in the roof of your mouth. Some of the action was okay. Ang Lee shot the film in digital high rate frame, which is supposed to be a groundbreaking feature of the movie, but it was a bit wavy for me. Some scenes were fine, but others had obvious issues. The high rate made some of the action look funny. To give you a visual, think watching a movie on 1.5 speed then on normal speed. One background was an obvious green screen, like the production team didn’t even care. If you see this movie (don’t) it will stick out. The de-aging CGI has its ups and downs as well. Some of the CGI was nice. It looked decent. Other parts…..YIKES! Bad! Like Henry Cavill’s facial blunder in Justice League. I was with some friends at the screening and we were looking at each other like “ewww, what was that”! The performances felt bland across the board, although Junior, Henry’s clone, was mildly interesting. Aside from the shootout scenes, I didn’t feel like Henry belonged in this movie. Smith’s portrayal of him felt like he was the dad from Pursuit of Happyness. Maybe I’m reaching with that comparison, but if you decide to see Gemini Man (don’t), you might see what I’m getting at. Clive Owen was odd in this also. His performance was bllleehhhhhhhhh. I will acknowledge that the screening audience laughed in unison at a joke. That was the most excitement the movie produced for me. The movie was so dull I just felt like I was sitting there, stuck in some monotone void. Granted, there are people who enjoyed this. You just might as well. I urge you not to spend more than six bucks on this though. Discount day it. Matinee it. Netflix it! I’m just saying. If you see Gemini Man and you don’t think it’s a one and done, that is fine. Nothing wrong with liking a terrible flick. I have several in my collection. Gemini Man won’t be there though.

See my live review here: https://www.facebook.com/MoviesWithMigs/videos/396788527632059/

CHEERS!
Migs Rodriguez