Gemini Man

Available digitally today!

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With a high concept and original script, two significant Hollywood talents (three if you count Will Smith twice) and all the muscle of a major studio release, "Gemini Man" had the potential to redefine the spy genre by infusing it with a similar emotional heft to that achieved by Marvel in the superhero genre. Instead, director Ang Lee, whose diverse achievements include "The Wedding Banquet," "Sense & Sensibility," "Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon," and "Brokeback Mountain" has given audiences a "not quite this / not quite that" film that doesn't so much define a genre as get lost in a few different ones.

There are moments of sheer, unadulterated joy in "Gemini Man," including one of the most phenomenal motorcycle chase scenes ever put on film. The film is weighed down by a script that ricochets between clever/heartfelt and derivative/wooden with alarming frequency. The two leads – Will Smith and Will Smith – do everything they can with the script, and often help it rise above the stereotypes. The supporting cast of outstanding veterans (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Benedict Wong, Clive Owen) are less fortunate in largely archetypical roles that are used as plot devices and not as fully realized individual characters. The attempts at real connection are largely lost in a poorly-plotted story.

When the movie works best, it's operating at Bourne-level government betrayal and the moral conundrum that arises when Smith's own agency turns its back on the elite assassin and attempts to have him killed. They send in the 20-something cloned version of Smith, which he didn't know existed (of course). The aforementioned motorcycle chase is so expertly executed as Will Smith (23) chases Will Smith (51) through the streets of Cartagena, Columbia that it never strains credibility – these are phenomenal stuntmen doing phenomenal work that lives at the edge of impossibility without crossing the line into film tricks or CGI.

There are some truly warm scenes between the two Smiths, and some uber-creepy scenes with Clive Owen, who raised the cloned Smith as his own son. The rest of the script is lackluster and full of gags and jokes that fall flat because the moments are unearned.

Kudos to Ang Lee for trying to make a fresh and original movie with a cadre of cinematic tricks, some of which work. If only he had a script that provided the immense talents on both sides of the camera with profound inspiration instead of dull administration. With a better script, "The Fresh Prince of the Biotech Lab" could have redefined the spy genre and launched an original film series to be mined and admired.