A retiring assassin, Henry Brogan, finds himself pursued by a mysterious killer that can predict his every move. Discovering that he’s being hunted by a younger clone of himself, Henry needs to find out why he’s being targeted and who the creator is.

I struggle with Will Smith movies.  There are far more that I strongly dislike, than those that I like, so more often than not, I just don’t watch his work until way after the fact – in the case of Gemini Man, I waited until it was available on VOD, which is not as long as I would regularly wait, but something about this one had my interest piqued.

Written by David Benioff, and directed by Ang Lee, Gemini Man stars Smith as the retiring hitman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen and Benedict Wong, and quite honestly, the movie was quite satisfying.

I do find it hard to take Will Smith as an “action hero”, but there is no more action to this than what he successfully pulled off in I Robot, I Am Legend or the Men in Black or Bad Boys franchises, which is to say, the perfect amount.

Gemini Man is what you get when you take elements of John Wick, The Bourne series and a hint of the 2001 Jet Li vehicle, The One, and combine.  It’s not perfect, but it’s not utter rubbish.

The de-aging technique used on Smith to create the younger hitman is flawless, as are the majority of the effects used.  Will Smith is one of those actors that never seems to age, but when you see his 2019 self side by side with his younger counterpart, it is obvious that he hasn’t found the fountain of youth.

Sure, there are parts of this that are hard to completely get on board with, but like I say time and time again, ITS A MOVIE!

Suspend your disbelief, shut off your brain, and use this for what it is.. a distraction.  Be it work, family or life in general, we could all use a distraction every now and then, and films like Gemini Man serve that exact purpose.

It’s not a classic, but it’s worth a look.

7/10

Rick Trewin.