I’m not particularly fond of the “motion smoothing” a lot of new high-definition TV sets have. It creates a kind of hyper-unreality that is a little unnerving to the eye. At least, for me. Still, as much as I love film, I’m all for the advancement of digital filmmaking and it’s pursue for ultra high resolution images.
For Gemini Man, director Ang Lee continues his pursuit of digital filmmaking which he experimented with in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016). That is, Gemini Man was shot in 4K 3D at 120 frames per second. So, the image is super crisp, bright, and hyper-real when the action starts to pick up. Most of it is beneficial to the 3D presentation, even if the movie doesn’t often play up the 3D that much, just a couple of the action scenes.
The high definition does give the night scenes an odd look. To me, they sometimes look like they have been shot day-for-night; an older technique where filming was done during the day, but the image is darkened to represent night. They try to avoid filming the sky because no matter how much they darken the image, the sky would still look bright. Also, the actors would often be squinting in the harsh sunlight.
Given that Ang Lee has those HD cameras, I doubt he’d be doing that. Or would he?
A key aspect of the plot has the main character of Henry Brogan (Will Smith) facing off his younger clone (also Will Smith). While Marvel Studios has done some remarkable jobs in creating younger versions of some characters (Robert Downey Jr in Captain America: Civil War, Kurt Russell in Guardians of The Galaxy Vol 2, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer in Ant Man & The Wasp for example), those were for short moments. While it does look like Smith is playing both parts, particularly for the more dramatic scenes, it doesn’t seem as likely for the action beats. Yet, the effects do the job of making it believable enough. For the most part.
Lee does a credible job with the direction, although the overall presentation may be an issue to some. The question of having such a hyper real image for a movie has been raised before. It’s not going to stop either as James Cameron is shooting his Avatar sequels with a high resolution and high frame rate as well, or so it’s been reported.
Smith does as well as he can with his dual roles with able support from Mary Elizabeth Winstead and scene-stealer Benedict Wong, while Clive Owen does his best at chewing on the bad guy role. The story itself does present some problems, primarily that something similar has popped up a few years back. 2012’s Looper that had ageing hitman Bruce Willis having to face off against his younger self. 2000’s The 6th Day had Arnold Schwarzenegger going up against his own clone.
It seems the story and script has been floating around since the 1990s and has passed through several directors and stars, all of whom have not been able to crack the effects work until now. Lee does a commendable job over all, aided by some decent effects work, stunt work, and a rousing score by Lorne Blafe, but it is ultimately lacking some heart. Something that even Lee couldn’t manage to draw out from the story itself.
Still, the movie should satisfy fans of Will Smith. The action is well choreographed with some standout moments. Both Winstead and Wong bring the goods, enough to give the movie some lift whenever they’re on screen. Sometimes, you just wish it could have been just that little bit more, something to warrant the quality of the filmmaking process and presentation itself.
Rating: 👥👥👥1/2 /5
Directed by Ang Lee
Written by David Benioff, Billy Ray, Darren Lemke
From a story by Darren Lemke & David Benioff
Stars Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Douglas Hodge, Ralph Brown, Linda Emond, Victor Hugo
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