I think the days of Will Smith automatically delivering a box office smash may be behind us. If you didn’t know, he turned 50 last year. So his action heavy days could be behind him as well. However, if you needed a testament to Will Smith’s gravitas. Audiences are absolutely down with the premise : Old Will Smith is so good, it makes sense to send young Will Smith to take him down. Ladies and Gentlemen… we have Gemini Man in a nutshell.

Gemini Man’s plot is pretty basic. It hits all the story beats you’ve seen over a hundred times before. Will Smith plays Henry Brogan, a highly skilled, retired, closed off, paranoid secret agent. Brogan learns of an evil plot committed by “high-up” government types, go figure… Brogan is now a liability and must be eliminated to preserve their secrets. They then task a younger clone of Brogran to do the deed. I’m skipping over a couple things, but I don’t need to waste that kind of time. If you’ve ever seen an action movie ever, you’ve seen this movie.

Will Smith does get a nice supporting cast. The always-welcomed Benedict Wong is the funny best friend. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, a CIA agent, is thankfully more than just a damsel in distress. She gets a couple of opportunities to lay the smack down. Rounding out the villain role of Clay Verris is Clive Owen. Clive Owen almost plays villains too well. There are a couple of attempts to imply Owen’s character is more than Dr. Evil levels of bad guy. I didn’t find that very convincing. That could just be the script at play but man… Clive Owen really just looks like he’s up to no good.

Gemini Man certainly wasn’t promoted as a narrative master piece. Does it deliver on the main attraction of Will Smith on Will Smith action? The best answer I can give you is … eehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This movie is getting characterized as a tech marvel. If it was released three years ago I may have agreed. The recent de-aging tech used on Samuel L. Jackson in Captain Marvel was a lot better than this. It does mostly work, but when it doesn’t it can be jarring. The ending scene in particular is so bad it almost cancels out anytime it fooled you earlier.

The action leaves a lot to be desired. For a run of the mil 90 min action romp, there weren’t enough action scenes. When those scenes are actually happening they are mostly good. Credit to an entertaining extended Motorcycle chase.

I’ve read this script has been around for over two decades. It’s easy to believe because Gemini Man feels like a 90’s action movie. They were just waiting for the technology to make it possible. Seems they only wondered if they “Could do it”. Nobody asked if they “Should do it”. The end result is ultimately forgettable.