COMBINE one of the most bankable action stars of all time with a two-time Academy Award-winning director and you should get a fantastic film, right?
Well, the high-resolution 3D format used for the film and the action scenes are spectacular but the storyline, unfortunately, needs more work.
Director Lee has been experimenting with digital technology for a while now, but recent films such as Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and now Gemini Man look good but lack the substance of his previous works.
The best part of the film has to be the high-resolution 3D format that makes the wide-screen shots breathtaking, the colours extremely vivid and every detail showing up with clarity, including the tiny bits of glass spraying all over the place in a major shoot-out scene towards the end.
And the action scenes have to be seen to believe, especially the ones involving a motorcycle chase and battle, and some of the cat-and-mouse scenes between main protagonist Henry Brogan (Will Smith) and his younger doppelganger, Junior (Smith with help from CGI).
As the story goes, Henry is calling it quits after taking out 72 bad guys for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) he works for.
But when he finds out that his last hit was not a bad guy after all, he and those associated with him become the target of his bosses and former army pal Clay Varris (Clive Owen) who runs a shadowy organisation called Gemini.
Henry escapes with his minder, DIA agent Danny Zakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), with the help of his ex-army buddy Brogan (Benedict Wong), who flies them to his villa in Colombia.
Clay then sends his special assassin Junior after Henry and their initial encounter is a spectacular fire-fight plus high-speed chase.
Danny later realises that Junior is Henry’s clone after she has his DNA tested.
From then on, you have to suspend belief a little as Henry and Junior try to outdo each other.
Then, there is the added drama of Clay being the only father Junior knows.
Junior looks great in the dark but in some of the scenes shot in broad daylight, he looks like something created using CGI.
That being said, the action scenes are the selling point of this film and fans of this genre will love every minute of it.
