Gemini Man

 

Maybe I'm getting back into watching movies - one of my long Covid symptoms. I feel I can agree to concentrate on the film for its entirety once again. Feels good. 😁

I hadn't seen this before and caught it on TV recently. Will Smith usually turns in performances in likeable characters and this time is no exception as he play DIA assassin Henry Brogan. There is plenty of action in this film, some clever special effects and a strong performance from Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Danny Zakarewski in support.

PLOT SPOILER

The premise of the film is quite simple although it takes a while to emerge. As an ageing assassin, Brogan is looking to retire. He is deemed to be such a valuable asset that the DIA cannot allow the loss of his services. One of Brogan's superiors, Clay Varris (Clive Owen) has seen this scenario developing and has taken action some years ago to negate the consequences. He sends Brogan on a mission with false data about the target who turns out to be an innocent scientist rather than an terrorist. This creates the pretext for Brogan to be labelled rogue, giving Brogan's Director the means to eliminate him. 

This is established fairly early on in the film and the narrative develops into a series of high action sequences as Brogan escapes his pursuers. As we might expect, any film directed by Ang Lee is going to have a lot of action!

Having eliminated the 'pack of pursuers' Brogan is left being hunted down by someone who seems to know exactly what he will do - even before he knows himself. It turns out the bent Director Varris cloned a new Brogan from a DNA sample some years before and the fitter, faster new version of Brogan seems to have the upper edge. Once the likeness has been established, clever CGI presents us with a youthful Will Smith trying to kill an older version of himself. Hence the title Gemini Man.

Apart from the questions about governments carrying out targeted assassinations on our behalf for the greater good (James Bond?), it raises questions about Eugenics where genetics are tweaked to enhance and improve the human condition, removing natural selection from the equation. If you want to explore movies with this theme, there are plenty more here.

At the end of the day this is an action film about good versus evil that uses an interesting mechanism to offer the entertainment. Standard Hollywood output. The film is set within the brutal world of clandestine cloak and dagger morality and lacks any finesse in the way the story lines are explored. Things are very black and white, which I guess is a good thing because I for one, really don't want this kind of thing going on - even if it is for my greater well-being. I'll give it 6/10.