Gemini Man

Gemini Man revolves around a hitman named Henry (Will Smith) who seeks retirement after having invested 25 years on the job. The psychological and emotional toll that this line of work did on him over the decades are established well early on. Obviously, the news of him retiring doesn't jive well with his employer. What ensues is a cat and mouse chase between the employee and his boss who uses the protagonist's clone to get rid of the former.

The film is astounding on all technical fronts, thanks to master director Ang Lee. Camera quality is pristine, lighting is perfect, score is pulsating, colours are saturated, sound design is sharp and the overall scale is epic! Look out for all the modern elements in the production design, especially the militia costumes and gears! All in all, Gemini Man effortlessly pulls off the posh aesthetics the makers were certainly aiming for. Locations are super fresh, with settings in Colombia and Hungary grabbing your attention instantly! Film editing though, could have employed lesser cuts. Since we are on the topic of technicalities, we have to talk about the elephant in the room - the deaging visual effects! To put it short, it's a groundbreaking technology that's effectively seamless at night time, but suffers under the presence of sunlight.

Performances are natural. Will Smith's charm overflows in its entirety throughout the show! Dialogues are memorable and catchy! However, Chinese wordings to indicate locations are completely out of place with the movie's context, but of course, the Chinese producers had to get their hands on something, right? Action sequences are excellent, with the train assassination, motorcycle chase, live shootout in Colombia, house infiltration and turret climax being absolutely badass! The only thing missing from said motion picture is the emotional heft. Sure, it's nice to see Henry advising and guiding his younger clone so that the latter would not repeat the mistakes he made. But, the emotional weight is unfortunately absent.