Gemini Review
If you miss the days when movies held your attention and made you feel something - than Gemini Man is for you.
I love a good action movie like anyone else, but action without heart falls flat. I want to connect with characters. Feel for them. Understand what is happening to them - that's a big one that a lot of movies often miss. I want their worlds and relationships to feel real. Added points if I'm fighting along with them for some kind of justice and truth.
Within the first few minutes of Gemini Man, I was thinking "Ok, this MC, Henry, feels real. He may be the best at what he does, but I can relate to him in little ways as a human being. He wants to slow down. He wants peace in his life. I get that."
I was particularly impressed with his interactions with other people. He has conversations that give you the impression that he's talked to some of these people before and he intends to again. Which is how most of us converse. Dialogue written with the sole purpose of imparting information to audiences tends to feel wooden and forced.
The action sequences are exciting and belong where they are placed. I appreciated the female character holding her own as well. Too often if women are involved in the action of a film there is the sense that the writer is waving a flag over her head and announcing loudly "Look! Look! We wrote a girl fighting into this movie!" - which is ultimately just patronizing. In Gemini Man, the whole thing feels natural.
Which unfortunately brings me to the biggest criticism I have of the movie... SPOILER ALERT...
Henry practically gets run over by a motorcycle - multiple times - flipped over on his back, head and side on the pavement in one scene. Apart from road rash and scrapes, he's fine. Fine! Get's up and is on his way. That scene pulled me out of the movie for a bit.
My other, more minor peeve was with the younger Will Smith. Maybe it was just me but I couldn't get past that he looked kinda fake - CGI wise.
Other than those relatively innocuous things. I really found myself caring in this movie. I wanted to stay in this world and with these characters longer. If they made a sequel, I would probably see it. Which is saying a lot. I hate sequels.
I love a good action movie like anyone else, but action without heart falls flat. I want to connect with characters. Feel for them. Understand what is happening to them - that's a big one that a lot of movies often miss. I want their worlds and relationships to feel real. Added points if I'm fighting along with them for some kind of justice and truth.
Within the first few minutes of Gemini Man, I was thinking "Ok, this MC, Henry, feels real. He may be the best at what he does, but I can relate to him in little ways as a human being. He wants to slow down. He wants peace in his life. I get that."
I was particularly impressed with his interactions with other people. He has conversations that give you the impression that he's talked to some of these people before and he intends to again. Which is how most of us converse. Dialogue written with the sole purpose of imparting information to audiences tends to feel wooden and forced.
The action sequences are exciting and belong where they are placed. I appreciated the female character holding her own as well. Too often if women are involved in the action of a film there is the sense that the writer is waving a flag over her head and announcing loudly "Look! Look! We wrote a girl fighting into this movie!" - which is ultimately just patronizing. In Gemini Man, the whole thing feels natural.
Which unfortunately brings me to the biggest criticism I have of the movie... SPOILER ALERT...
Henry practically gets run over by a motorcycle - multiple times - flipped over on his back, head and side on the pavement in one scene. Apart from road rash and scrapes, he's fine. Fine! Get's up and is on his way. That scene pulled me out of the movie for a bit.
My other, more minor peeve was with the younger Will Smith. Maybe it was just me but I couldn't get past that he looked kinda fake - CGI wise.
Other than those relatively innocuous things. I really found myself caring in this movie. I wanted to stay in this world and with these characters longer. If they made a sequel, I would probably see it. Which is saying a lot. I hate sequels.
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