27% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 191 reviews)
Runtime: 117 minutes
Directed by: Ang Lee
Starring: Will Smith, a digital creation that's 90's Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong
From: Paramount
NOTE: This rating (I rated it high on Letterboxd) is only is applicable to the HFR 3D+ version of the film.
My review of Gemini Man will spend much more time discussing the tech behind it than the qualities of the movie itself, as judging on basic tenants such as plot, story, acting, or the action scenes, this is not a must-see... what made the experience great was its presentation. Now, I had never seen anything on the big screen projected in high frame rate. I haven't seen any of The Hobbit movies period as I just did not care to; I know that not everyone I personally knew who did and saw it at 48fps were fans of that presentation. For some it just did not look right and never did. I understand it perhaps wasn't the best movie to be filmed at that speed but one day I did hope to see something at HFR... even if on my TV's I always turn off motion smoothing-or whatever other name a particular manufacturer refers to it as-because that just looks terrible.
Thankfully Paramount is supportive of this new-fangled technology and at least in the United States it is not that difficult-at least if you live around a large city-to see Gemini Man in HFR and 3D. I had the added bonus of viewing this HFR 3D+ print on a Dolby Cinema at the AMC located on Walt Disney World property. To clarify, for some reason if you look online it does not specify that is in a Dolby Cinema; rather, it just notes HFR 3D+ and the presentation was also in Dolby 3D, meaning you get those fancy Space Glasses, as I like to call them. I imagine it's also due to the director being Ang Lee and the star being Will Smith (along with the popularity of the AMC A-List app, which I've used since July of last year and never had a problem with) but those screenings of this movie have been popular since last night, and my particular screening was sold out.
As only a few places in the entire world could show this movie at the 120fps it was shot at, seeing it 60fps on a giant screen w/ dual laser projection is just about the best way possible to experience Gemini Man... unless you live in the countries where it is shown HFR 3D+ in IMAX. Personally, my jaw dropped at the picture quality and how tremendous the 3D looked. Yeah, the way people and other objects move did look different but I was not bothered by that. Between that and the Dolby Atmos sound, if you can view it that way, it is a must. Now, to steal a point, because of the film's appearance being that of a modern videogame, at times the action is done as if it was a first person shooter; makes sense. The action is not revolutionary (except perhaps for using those crotch rocket motorcycles as a weapon) yet it was still fun to watch and as I known was done deliberately due to some publicity material I read last month, wounds are visible from damage taken during a fight or accident and those wounds stay on a character's face or body for a few scenes afterwards.
To clear a common misconception-even among critics-Young Will Smith is not just a de-aged Will Smith; rather, it is an entirely motion capture-created character, and overall that doesn't quite look right... although I suppose the effect will come across different in 24fps and as the character is a clone, that can be explained away anyhow. I don't think the technology is quite there yet as typically Young Will Smith is shot in low light or darkness or part of his face is obscured. The one time you see it out and about on a bright sunny day: YIKES. It literally appeared to be an older version of the creation and it accidentally wasn't improved upon before release. It was so drastic I am surprised I didn't yell “WTF?” out loud.
All that said, if you see this in 24fps and 2D, I will presume the picture's flaws will be much more readily apparent, from how generic the story really is to some of the rancid dialogue... whether it be cheesy first draft stuff or how things are over-explained when they really shouldn't be. This script has been around for over 20 years and there have been at least 8 credited writers by the time it was brought to screen. For an Ang Lee picture, you would have hoped the story would have been at least as halfway revolutionary as how this was filmed, but alas... it is no surprise that most critics have lambasted the movie.
As I have made readily apparent by now, the way this movie is seen will affect how you felt about it overall. Thankfully I was over the moon for how Gemini Man looked, the nice job the main cast did with the material given to them and how some scenes were either in Colombia or Budapest, Hungary... locations that are not played out to me. I am fascinated to see how HFR will be used in the future; I already know James Cameron is supposed to film the Avatar sequels that way, whenever the hell those finally come out. If you do decide to see Gemini Man, no matter its format you should not expect something masterful like Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
My review of Gemini Man will spend much more time discussing the tech behind it than the qualities of the movie itself, as judging on basic tenants such as plot, story, acting, or the action scenes, this is not a must-see... what made the experience great was its presentation. Now, I had never seen anything on the big screen projected in high frame rate. I haven't seen any of The Hobbit movies period as I just did not care to; I know that not everyone I personally knew who did and saw it at 48fps were fans of that presentation. For some it just did not look right and never did. I understand it perhaps wasn't the best movie to be filmed at that speed but one day I did hope to see something at HFR... even if on my TV's I always turn off motion smoothing-or whatever other name a particular manufacturer refers to it as-because that just looks terrible.
Thankfully Paramount is supportive of this new-fangled technology and at least in the United States it is not that difficult-at least if you live around a large city-to see Gemini Man in HFR and 3D. I had the added bonus of viewing this HFR 3D+ print on a Dolby Cinema at the AMC located on Walt Disney World property. To clarify, for some reason if you look online it does not specify that is in a Dolby Cinema; rather, it just notes HFR 3D+ and the presentation was also in Dolby 3D, meaning you get those fancy Space Glasses, as I like to call them. I imagine it's also due to the director being Ang Lee and the star being Will Smith (along with the popularity of the AMC A-List app, which I've used since July of last year and never had a problem with) but those screenings of this movie have been popular since last night, and my particular screening was sold out.
As only a few places in the entire world could show this movie at the 120fps it was shot at, seeing it 60fps on a giant screen w/ dual laser projection is just about the best way possible to experience Gemini Man... unless you live in the countries where it is shown HFR 3D+ in IMAX. Personally, my jaw dropped at the picture quality and how tremendous the 3D looked. Yeah, the way people and other objects move did look different but I was not bothered by that. Between that and the Dolby Atmos sound, if you can view it that way, it is a must. Now, to steal a point, because of the film's appearance being that of a modern videogame, at times the action is done as if it was a first person shooter; makes sense. The action is not revolutionary (except perhaps for using those crotch rocket motorcycles as a weapon) yet it was still fun to watch and as I known was done deliberately due to some publicity material I read last month, wounds are visible from damage taken during a fight or accident and those wounds stay on a character's face or body for a few scenes afterwards.
To clear a common misconception-even among critics-Young Will Smith is not just a de-aged Will Smith; rather, it is an entirely motion capture-created character, and overall that doesn't quite look right... although I suppose the effect will come across different in 24fps and as the character is a clone, that can be explained away anyhow. I don't think the technology is quite there yet as typically Young Will Smith is shot in low light or darkness or part of his face is obscured. The one time you see it out and about on a bright sunny day: YIKES. It literally appeared to be an older version of the creation and it accidentally wasn't improved upon before release. It was so drastic I am surprised I didn't yell “WTF?” out loud.
All that said, if you see this in 24fps and 2D, I will presume the picture's flaws will be much more readily apparent, from how generic the story really is to some of the rancid dialogue... whether it be cheesy first draft stuff or how things are over-explained when they really shouldn't be. This script has been around for over 20 years and there have been at least 8 credited writers by the time it was brought to screen. For an Ang Lee picture, you would have hoped the story would have been at least as halfway revolutionary as how this was filmed, but alas... it is no surprise that most critics have lambasted the movie.
As I have made readily apparent by now, the way this movie is seen will affect how you felt about it overall. Thankfully I was over the moon for how Gemini Man looked, the nice job the main cast did with the material given to them and how some scenes were either in Colombia or Budapest, Hungary... locations that are not played out to me. I am fascinated to see how HFR will be used in the future; I already know James Cameron is supposed to film the Avatar sequels that way, whenever the hell those finally come out. If you do decide to see Gemini Man, no matter its format you should not expect something masterful like Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
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