If Gemini Man appears to be a straight-faced satire of late ’90s action-thrillers—and does it ever—there’s a reason. Focused on a cloned assassin trying to kill his older self, its high-concept premise was sold to Disney in those halcyon pre-Looper days of 1997, with the late Tony Scott then set to direct.
Unfortunately, the technology to execute this just wasn’t there at the time, as all of 1997’s face-altering science was then aimed at swapping the mugs of John Travolta and Nicolas Cage. While various actors were attached to star (Cage among them, naturally), various directors attached to helm, and a damning amount of writers brought on to write and rewrite this thing, only now that we’ve reverted Sam Jackson to his Negotiator-era self has computer imagery caught up to this increasingly hackneyed idea.
But somehow it hasn’t caught up to Gemini Man itself.
Despite seven credited writers, more than two decades of development, and now having two-time Oscar winner Ang Lee in the director’s chair, the movie still looks and sounds like a decades-old relic in this first trailer.
Will Smith stars opposite a youthful Will Smith who’s only scarcely more realistic than his I Am Legend pals. In a strangely stilted cadence, he’s forced to drop painful, clichéd filler lines like, “[he’s] like a ghost,” “they chose me because there’s never been anybody like me,” “we have to end this right now,” and “you made a person out of another person.” That describes the creation of literally all of human life, Will Smith, but sure. We get what you’re going after. Could maybe use an eighth or ninth rewrite, but we get it.
Gemini Man will face off against the 25-year-old version of itself that should have been made instead when it hits theaters October 11.
