Thursday, October 10, 2019

Gemini Man - A Unique Premised Movie with Some Mind Blowing Actions & Huge Amount of CGI Effects

When I saw this movie's trailer in the past few weeks, I thought this looked like a great full action movie, plus the main lead was Will Smith who was quite amazing as action star. So by the time it was released yesterday, I immediately requested my wife to buy the tickets for the show at my favorite Dolby Atmos theater as I was certain it had such sound effects. Good thing it did play there and we could see the 7.05 PM show. Well was it any good? Let's get into detail now.

Brief Story Line

Henry Brogan (Will Smith - Aladdin live version, Focus etc) has decided to retire from his work as assassin for the government. During his retirement, Henry befriended with the manager of the boat rental named Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead - 10 Cloverfield Lane, Sky High etc). However, due to some reasons, Henry himself became the target of assassination by his former employer Clay Verris (Clive Owen - Anon, The International etc).


While trying to escape from the deadly assassins, Henry sought the help from his former army friend Baron (Benedict Wong - Deadly Class, Doctor Strange etc). But things became very complicated when there was a mysterious and highly skilled assassin who seemed to look a lot like Henry's younger self.

So what would happen to Henry and how would the story end? Find them all in this action thriller movie.


End of Brief Story Line

OK, I said above that I was expecting a full action movie due to the impression I got from its trailer. Turned out that the movie did have some high octane great action sequences (that motorcycle scenes were awesome!), but it was combined with quite a lot of dialogues which made the movie's pace a bit slow in certain parts. It made the whole movie's experience a bit less optimized for me. However, whenever the actions were shown, they always satisfied me.

The thing I loved the most about this film was definitely the special effects. The CGI were amazingly done with some realistically created younger version of Will Smith using the de-aging software. I think I saw these similar effects on movies like Captain MarvelAnt-man and the Wasp and few others. I also loved the fight scenes between the two Will Smith which I think was definitely better than the movie The One starring Jet Li. Some audience though may felt the movie had too much CGI effects, but I personally love the way it was done.

Oh before I forgot, the sound effects were also really fantastic. Dolby Atmos were put into maximum effect and I really did not regret on insisting to see this in the theater with such system. And I also noticed that few scenes would look good in 3D. Yes this movie was also released in 3D and were shown in several theaters too. But as I am not huge fan of using 3D glasses on top of my own, I did not aim to see this in theater with such effect. Btw the film had duration of 117 minutes including a very long closing credits to show all the people involved in making the movie with mostly in the visual effects department. It did not have any mid or post end credit scenes.

This movie was directed by Ang Lee who had directed some critically appraised and awards winning movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain, Life of Pi and so on. With such experience, it made me wonder a bit why this film felt a bit emotionless at certain times. I also did not feel that Benedict Wong got a suitable role in here. His character seemed to be added just for a bit of fun (although he did provide few brief funny remarks) and had very little impact. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was quite OK, but I was a bit disappointed with Clive Owen who did not seem convincing enough as the main villain. Will Smith on the other hand seemed intent on showing his acting, even though his actions were the main attraction here (he was still amazing even in his 50s).

Overall I thought this movie was quite OK as action thriller, though I thought its story/plot could have been better especially with Ang Lee's name at the helm, It had fantastic action sequence and got great special effects and amazing sound effects that would satisfy your hunger for nicely done actions. The story's idea was certainly unique and probably no longer such a science fiction now with how the technology has developed over the years. So if you are looking for a movie with some mind blowing action sequences but you do not mind with the plot and some slower paced scenes, plus you want to see Will Smith fighting with his younger self, then this one should not be missed.

Happy watching!

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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