10 Movies Everyone Wished Were WAY Crazier
4. Gemini Man
Will Smith has an unfortunate knack for getting involved with interesting projects which are ultimately sanitised into characterless oblivion once they've been put through the Hollywood sausage factory.
Case in point, Gemini Man was hyped on the delicious premise of Will Smith playing a retired soldier who is targeted for assassination by a much younger version of himself.
Will Smith vs. Will Smith? Let's go.
Despite the thrill of seeing one of the biggest movie stars on the planet face off against his digitally de-aged younger self, Gemini Man largely plays out like a dead-ordinary action-thriller, rather than fully exploiting the uniquely uncanny weirdness of its setup.
On a storytelling and character level, this an energy-devoid take on a high-concept premise, the dialogue merely serving as a listless bridge between action sequences which, considering the $140 million budget and Oscar-winning director Ang Lee in the chair, come off as disappointingly joyless.
Evidently far too much money was spent on both the not-bad digital de-aging and Lee's insistence to shoot the film in 120fps 3D, that Gemini Man had no latitude to be anything more than a generic sci-fi thriller pandering to the most casual and easily satisfied of audiences.
This was an opportunity for Will to get freaky with himself, and he blew it.