Gemini Man a high-concept, low-impact dud

Gemini Man is so deathly dull it barely manages to break out of a reluctant jog as you wait for Will Smith to get into a feeble fight to the death with a 25-year-old version of himself.

A high-concept, low-impact dud, Gemini Man has been crouched in the starting blocks since the 1990s, waiting for the necessary developments in screen tech to arrive for a proper visual realisation of its premise.

Several big-name stars came and went from the project over the years, from Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood and Arnie, through to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and even (things must have been getting desperate) Nicolas Cage.

Gemini Man never calls on Smith’s proven charm.

Now that the special-effects know-how is here, the cobwebs have been cleared, and Gemini Man is finally up and running.

Actually, running might be overstating it, for the film rarely breaks out of a reluctant jog as we wait for a 51-year-old Will Smith to get in a feeble fight to the death with a 25-year-old Will Smith.

The older Smith is Harry Brogan, a recently retired international super-assassin who has peeved his handlers for leaving the gig on conscientious grounds.

The younger Smith (or at least a Smith who has been digitally de-aged by a few decades) is Junior, a genetic clone sent by those handlers to destroy his dissenting doppelganger.

Will Smith battles a version of himself who is half his age.

The exchanges of fists and firearms take place in various exotic locales for no apparent reason, and are presented in a new high-res 3-D format that make many key moments of this expensive production look like behind-the-scenes footage filmed on a fancy phone.

It is all so deathly dull, and to be frank, it did not have to be. Not with a star of Smith’s proven charm (bizarrely never called on here) or a director like Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain) involved.

GEMINI MAN (M)

Director: Ang Lee (Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk)

Starring: Will Smith, Clive Owen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Benedict Wong.

Rating: *1/2

Two Wills, no way

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