Gemini Man

        ‘You can tell me now or you can tell me in five minutes without all                                                                   your teeth' - Dani Zakarweski

After Henry Brogan (Will Smith) completes his last job as a hitman and plans to retire, his own agency tries to kill him, sending his clone to fulfil the hit.

Across the film there was an overuse of close up shots where a two shot would have suited. The focus on characters faces exposes the lack of intensity behind their action along with making it difficult to see the connection between characters.

Another thing hard to look at was the clone of Henry. Done by de-aging Will Smith, Junior looks as if the face is a clean-shaven Will Smith was morphed to appear younger, looking nothing like Smith during did when recording The Fresh Prince of Bel Air when he was 22. Potentially done with another actor who wasn’t so recognisable in his youth, this wouldn’t be a problem, but Smith has been well known for decades.

 Although, the eerie appearance of Junior does add suspense to the film as you can imagine the threat of an entire army that looks the same and operates without a conscience. For this effect I can see why it was better not to cast a young actor to play Junior. Surprisingly, as well, there is an innocence to Junior’s voice, it’s without the edge of the 51-year-old that he was cloned from.

But the fear of such an army is alleviated during fit scenes between the two as it is very obviously done with special effects and their fights then lose intensity.

Thankfully though, the fighting between the two was limited and the action in the film overall was good to watch.

Dani Zakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) expresses her strong desire to run the agency that is currently hell bent on killing Henry but consistently shows she’s not fit for it. Often asking stupid questions such as ‘Has your government every tried to kill you before?’*, to which the answer should be obvious, as well as screaming ‘Why are you doing this?’ when Junior tries to kill Henry, despite it being his literal job and the premise the film is built on.

Clay’s (Clive Owen ) plan is to create an army of soldiers cloned from Henry to allow them to be the best hitmen but to remove their conscious so that they are ruthless killers. Although it is what most would deem unethical, similarly to Erik Killmonger’s plan for revenge in Black Panther(2018), you can understand where he is coming from with the idea, as it prevents more loved ones to be killed during war or to return with mental disorders such PTSD. However, unlike Killmonger, we don’t develop any interest or even sympathy for Clay he is always shown as the bad man who cloned Henry and tormented him when they worked together.

I believe that exploring Clay’s desire for a ruthless army could be an interesting plot to watch develop on screen, but that doesn’t get people to the box office, Will Smith does.

Honestly, despite its flaws Gemini Man is a good watch. With good amounts of fight scenes and explosions, even a far amount of comedy from the main cast. It is an enjoyable film. It has failed at the box office during its opening weekend and the reason why I’m not quite sure as it is an enjoyable film, but I imagine due to the long career of Will Smith, we are no longer looking for just enjoyable.

*After watching Bourne trilogy, I recognise this to be a completely legitimate question.( 21/07/2020)