Critics really hate Gemini Man, but audiences dig it

There are a bunch of new movies coming out in theaters this weekend, and for the most part, critics hate them. The new animated Addams Family movie is getting panned, Jexi — the new comedy about what if your cell phone liked you too much, has a full 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s early yet, but if it keeps that rating, it will join a very exclusive, very dubious club.

The biggest release is Gemini Man, Ang Lee’s spy thriller about a veteran hit man (Will Smith) who wants to get out of the business. His bosses aren’t so keen on that, so they send out the only person with the skills to kill him: his younger clone. It’s a battle of the Will Smiths, opening in a theater near you.

Lee is a skilled director who’s made a lot of good movies, Sense and Sensibility to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Brokeback Mountain. He’s also been at the forefront of special effects technology, pushing boundaries in movies like Life of Pi. The premise sounds fun enough, and Smith is always charming. Sounds like a good time, right?

I guess not. The movie currently sits at a thudding 30% on the Tomatometer, with the general consensus being, “I guess it’s cool that Old Will Smith is fighting Young Will Smith but the movie itself is predictable and dull.”

• Rex Reed of The Observer: “The plot makes no sense, the dreary script is dead on arrival, and Smith is just as blank and lost at 23 as he is at 51.”
• Richard Roper of The Chicago Sun-Times: “The idiotic spy thriller, pitting a dark-ops assassin against his younger clone, uses slick new technology but tired old plot twists.”
• Peter Travers of The Rolling Stone: “In this high-tech downgrade for the great Ang Lee, all the digital fx it takes for Will Smith to mix it up with a “Fresh Prince” version of himself does not compensate for a dull plot, achingly familiar characters and dialogue that’s no fun at all.”
• Rafer Guzman of Newsday: “It’s a technologic marvel that uses digital magic to achieve a level of vividness and realism unparalleled in film history. And it’s a routine Hollywood blockbuster with more spectacle than originality.”

You get the idea.

Mixing and matching Will Smiths isn’t the only trick Gemini Man is pulling. Lee has shot the movie so it will run at 120 frames per second, well above the standard 24. The movie is definitely pushing boundaries technologically, but some critics think the choice to focus on the technology backfires in a big way:

• Alison Willmore of Vulture: “Sometimes it’s just difficult to know where to look – in one dramatic shoot-out in a store, I couldn’t stop staring at the perfectly visible selection of chips lining the shelves they dove past.”
• Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal: “The frame rate doesn’t speed up the pace — the film bogs down woefully between action sequences — and the shake rate wasn’t sufficient to keep my body from going slack while my mind meandered through the story’s incoherence.”
• Odle Henderson of RogerEbert.com: “[Lee’s] recent desire to be at the forefront of frame-based technology, however, is resulting in hollow, empty experiences that are literally hard to watch.”

And it’s not just the written critics. Popular YouTubers like Chris Stuckman and Jeremy Jahns are panning the movie, too, with neither of them being very impressed with the de-aging technology. Or at least, they’re not nearly as impressed as the movie wants them to be.

However, just for balance, here’s an excerpt from one of the few positive reviews, from Weldon B. Johnson of the Arizona Republic:

"Gemini Man features enough action to keep adrenaline junkies hooked. There are chases and gun battles and the kind of masterful fight scenes you’d expect from director Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Life of Pi). You get to see two guys go at it who seem to know each other’s every move.Meanwhile, the story is compelling and logical enough that you won’t find yourself sitting in the theater asking, “why would he do that?” or “do they really expect me to believe he could get away with that?”The questions you’ll probably be asking will be more along the lines of “how did they do that?”"

Audiences seem to dig it, too, at least based on the reviews that have come in on Rotten Tomatoes so far. In fact, it looks like like we could be in for one of those critic-audience splits, where the pros feel one way about a movie but the viewing public feels another.

Admittedly, it’s early yet, and there aren’t many audience reviews. It could drop.

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Personally, I thought this looked pretty interesting, but now I think I’ll stay away. Better to stay in and watch the new Breaking Bad movie on Netflix! Critics love that one.

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