The Bizarre Cheapness of Gemini Man. Movie Review

Gemini Man is one of the strangest theatre going experiences I’ve had in quite some time I had intended to see the film in 60FPS 3D as I was travelling down for another screening and this format was not available in my city. That screaming eventually got cancelled and I ended up seeing it in IMAX 2D at 24FPS. I know this is probably not Ang Lee’s intended format but the IMAX I went to brands itself as the biggest screen in Scotland and is certainly no slouch in the presentation department.
As I was sitting there in a mostly empty IMAX what I was struck by was how cheap the film looked. In a format that strips away the technological gimmickry that Ang Lee and his team love to play with you’re left with a very sleepy action movie that is executed with as much style and flair as an episode of american network TV (ie none at all.) A laughably paper thin script and inconsistencies de-ageing technology used on Will Smith certainly don’t help matters. After thinking about it in the days since seeing the film it reminded me of the collaboration between Marvel TV and IMAX on the thankfully mostly forgotten Inhumans series. I never saw the IMAX cut of the premiere but I did see the full season and Gemini Man has similar problems. For as much effort has been put into the marketing the central gimmick (in Inhumans case it was shooting TV with IMAX cameras) all other elements of the production feel cheap and lazy and the technological gimmickry cannot stand on its own. I’m not accusing anyone that work on Gemini Man of being a hack on the same level as Scott Buck (one of the worst TV writers currently working) but my main point still stands.
If you’re not able to see it in a format that puts the technological gimmicks front and centre you are left with one of the dullest theatre experiences you can have in 2019. Will Smith fans might get something out of it but but other than that avoid like the plague.
3/10