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Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen, Benedict Wong, Douglas Hodge, Ralph Brown, Linda Emond, Ilia Volok, E.J. Bonilla, David Shae (mehr)Streaming (5)
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Henry Brogan arbeitet als Auftragskiller. Bei seinem letzten Job geht jedoch etwas schief und plötzlich wird er selbst zur Zielscheibe seines einstigen Vorgesetzten. Doch damit nicht genug: Sein neuer Gegenspieler scheint ihm immer einen Schritt voraus zu sein. Erst als Brogan entdeckt, wer ihn zur Strecke bringen will, ergibt alles einen Sinn: Er kämpft gegen eine geklonte, jüngere Version von sich selbst. (Puls4)
(mehr)Kritiken (10)
Die Absicht war, mit einem top Drehbuchautor und einem "künstlerischen“ Regisseur einen einfachen Van-Damme-Stoff zu einem geistreichen, emotionalen Actiondrama mit einer verhüllten sozialen Thematik zu machen. Und das hat nicht gerade geklappt. Der digital verjüngte Smith ist eine WTF-Figur – er soll den heftigsten innerlichen Kampf durchmachen, der eine hochwertige Schauspielleistung fordert. Paradoxerweise ist er mit der Shrek-Mimik die am schlimmsten "gespielte“ Figur des Films. Der Film mit dem ehrgeizigen Plan wird auch durch die unrealistischen digitalen Actionszenen verdorben. Sie sind wie aus dem Häppchen-Vergnügungspark Fast & Furious. Dabei sah der Anfang so vielversprechend aus. Will ist immer noch cool und die Chemie zwischen ihm und Mary Elizabeth Winstead angenehm.
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Ich befinde mich in einem Stadium, in dem ich die Schauspieler meiner Kindheit, die ich in den neunziger Jahren so mochte, mittlerweile an Seite derer Kinder spielen sehe und sie ähneln ihnen sehr. Wie ein Deja vu. Es ist halt so. An diesem Film ist gut zu erkennen, dass er von einer erfahrenen Person gedreht wurde und dass Ang Lee bereits in den neunziger Jahren gezeigt hat, wie Filme gedreht werden sollen. Heutzutage gelten aber solche Filme als Standard, nicht als etwas, was man sich unbedingt merken sollte. Die Action ist gut, die Effekte gehen gerade so, die Dialoge sind eher schwach und die Handlung entspricht dem Niveau eines fünfjährigen Jungen. Ok, Hollywood möchte es heutzutage so, also vergebe ich drei Sterne, aber bin der Meinung, dass ich innerhalb einiger Monate Gemini Man mit ruhigem Gewissen vergessen werde.
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Im Hinblick darauf, wie ernst sich der Film nimmt, ist Gemini Man kein besonders geistreiches Werk. Und obwohl ich mir insgeheim gewünscht habe, dass ein Will-Smith-Filmdreieck entsteht – I Am Legend + I, Robot + ? – ist es leider nicht passiert. Außer dem seltsamen Drehbuch, bei dem es mehrmals so aussah, als ob es sich auf eine überraschende Wende vorbereiten würde, zu der es schließlich nicht gekommen ist, waren auch die Tricks seltsam. Damit meine ich jetzt nicht den verjüngten Will Smith, der wirklich perfekt ist (Was kommt als Nächstes? Sollen wir z. B. neue Grotesken von Buster Keaton erwarten?), sondern den Rest – viele Aufnahmen sehen nämlich nervig digital aus… Die Verfolgung auf den Motorrädern ist prima, manchmal kommen aber seltsame Momente (man muss einfach daran denken, wie es z. B. mit dem Stuntman-Verrückten Tom Cruise aussehen könnte, der keine digitale Doubles und Motorräder bräuchte), die Kämpfe Mann gegen Mann wirken eher wie Kämpfe Roboter gegen Roboter… Und Ideen der Regie? Wenn ich mich daran erinnere, wie originell damals Ang Lee mit dem Comic-Hulk gearbeitet hat (ja, den mach ich wirklich), muss ich sagen: Es ist nichts Besonderes.
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Die Werbung für Gemini Man im 3D-HFR-Format hat mich ins Kino gelockt, und ich war neugierig, wie ein verjüngter Will Smith in echt aussieht. Mehr als einmal habe ich während der Handlung eine gewisse Genre-Verwirrung gespürt, und ich war mir nicht ganz sicher, ob der Film selbst wusste, was er sein wollte. Wir haben es hier mit einem actiongeladenen Science-Fiction-Film über das Klonen von Menschen zu tun, der mit gelegentlichen Witzen und romantischen Anspielungen gespickt ist, während er manchmal oberflächlich versucht, etwas Besseres innerhalb des Science-Fiction-Genres zu sein. Was die Actionsequenzen angeht, kann ich mich nicht beklagen - die Verfolgungsjagd auf Motorrädern, das Duell zwischen den Totenköpfen oder der Endkampf waren wirklich toll - auch wenn ich anmerken muss, dass es manchmal aufgrund der Bildqualität zu künstlich aussah, aber ich bin trotzdem froh, dass ich mich für einen Kinobesuch in diesem Format entschieden habe. Die Optik des verjüngten Smith war in der Tat beeindruckend, ich war nur etwas verwundert über den geringen Platz für Benedict Wong und über das eher fade Ende. Es waren sicherlich keine verschwendeten zwei Stunden im Kino, aber es ist auch eine einmalige Angelegenheit, die man innerhalb einer Woche wieder vergessen hat.
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Gemini Man is a strange combination of a 90s action movie with an attempt to suggest what the future of cinema might look like, and I'm not sure I like it. I didn’t mind the B-movie story, Gemini Man is still a brisk actioner and Ang Lee handles the chases, the shootouts and the one-on-one fights brilliantly, and thankfully there's not a shortage of them, so the overall goofiness and straightforwardness doesn't particularly matter (except perhaps for the boring villain). The problem I had was more with the visuals. While young Will Smith looks really great, everything else is kind of weird. Gemini Man is visually unnaturally... clean. Especially in the exteriors, it looks more like a very well done computer game animation, which unfortunately with its bold colors sometimes resembles the worst of South American soap operas. I don't know to what extent it was 3D or 120fps, but personally I found it distracting and even annoying at some points.
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Oscar-winning Ang Lee delivers a 90's style actioner, and even though the critics are grumbling, I think it's great. Will Smith is the ultimate assassin and he's just about to retire, but before he does he has to face his own younger clone who wants to take him out without hesitation. The story is interesting, but doesn't dazzle that much, which in this case I don't mind because the action scenes are almost revolutionary and technically precise. The intense music, the amazing cinematography, the utmost professionalism and precision of the two Wills captivated me with every moment and the scene with the motorbikes is one of the best I've seen in the cinema this year, but the fight in the catacombs or the rotating machine gun with lasers is also great. The acting, the action and the technical aspects of the film are impeccable and if that's enough for you, you'll be royally entertained like me. 80%
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In terms of visuals, this is a terrific film and the young version of Will Smith is convincing. The action is sweet and takes place in great locations (I keep coming across Konstanz this year). Ang Lee is brilliant. Unfortunately, the story is a classic from the nineties, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary next year. And all it needs is for Henry not to be a nice hit man. Owen is underused and the Smiths play standard roles, but Mary Elizabeth is unbelievably great. She doesn't need anyone, nothing surprises her much and she has clear professional ambitions. Gemini Man is not revolutionary; it's just a good action film.
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An art director and a renowned screenwriter have put together a very modern actioner with a 1990s theme. The digitally rejuvenated Smith has the same problem as De Niro in The Irishman, or the eyes tell all. The digital faces still aren't top notch, but kudos to the filmmakers who aren't afraid to experiment with new things. Thanks to them, cinema is moving forward and digital technology is one of the alternative futures of where to go. I’ll ignore the story, it stops being interesting after 30 minutes, which unfortunately should have been the "wow" moment. Smith can still swing fantastically, even though he’s pushing fifty already. Overall, Lee nailed the action scenes and they look very impressive, which is also the only reason to watch this film.
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I didn’t believe Hollywood was still able to produce pure action blockbusters like this. Despite all the inevitable changes during its production, this is clearly a Bruckheimer premise from the 90s in its full glory, at the centre of which there is a protagonist who’s exceptionally proficient in the liquidation of villains, a potentially romantic line that is fully pushed aside, and a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, but without the burden of a social or political context. The narrative creates a simple hyperreality where only the two sides of the conflict exist, and everything else is unimportant. Using pure images and digital effects, Ang Lee emphasises this concept to create an alternative world that I had no trouble accepting and let myself be absorbed in at least at the level of a proper action experience. The action itself is not static or forced, but fairly diverse in the way it moves the plot forward, and the digital look is not painful to watch – it actually fits into the concept. Actually, there’s not that much action, it relies more on the interactions of the characters, who direct an otherwise simple story. This is not revolutionary genre nonsense, the story is too standard for that and the way it develops some of the motifs is unoriginal and telegraphic, but I was impressed by the old-fashioned feel and, after a long time, Lee gave me 3D comfort where I can see a promising visual future (though I understand that many viewers won’t like this hyperrealistic style). Personally, I expected it to be considerably funnier in a 90s way – all that seriousness didn’t work on me at times.
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It was Vidocq in 2001, it was Public Enemies by Mann, Gamer by Neveldine/Taylor, or the entire Hobbit trilogy. These are all pioneers of the digital barrier in film who, however much they were previously blamed for it, have broached uncharted territory for others without the constraints of film stock and twenty-five frames per second. And now this Segal-esque action flick will join them. Gemini Man runs at up to 120 FPS under specified conditions, which to the unprepared eye can seem like an incredible abomination. And an abomination it is. The action scenes are still manageable if, following my example, you spend a fair amount of your time in virtual worlds (and the film tries to identify with the viewer in this way through various first-person shots), but the civilian scenes are harder to handle. The over-sharpness and huge resolution struggle with how easily artificial lighting reveals and discards any other planes in the shot. Indeed, if the distant object is in focus at the same rate as the foreground object, the image starts to look two-dimensional instead of spatial because you’re already so used to working visually with the simple limits of your eyes. If the filmmakers' need to increase the number of frames per second is motivated by a desire to bring the viewer closer to what is happening on the screen, this ignores the fact that human attention, sight, and perception also work subjectively. Good action scenes in movies take advantage of this, and in a field of constantly changing and frenetic situations, they throw us keys to fix our attention on what they want us to see. Gemini Man feels like it doesn't need such keys. It settles for focusing the action to the maximum and all it wants us to do is watch. Then again, the action scenes themselves aren't bad at all (except for some really gimmicky special effects), but they don't give the impression that there are live people in them. Which is a problem with a story about hard-hitting killers who are supposed to bleed and suffer. _____ Interestingly, I didn't want to write about this at all originally, because more than the technical side of it, I was struck by the fact that it's used to reveal the utter exhaustion of former Hollywood first man Will Smith. He looks more tired and useless here than any contemporary Bruce Willis, and the triple-digit frame rate mercilessly never wavers from him. The man is no longer even able to enter a room naturally, and the fact that the film is all about him and his WETA clone is more fascinating to me than all the technological advances demonstrated. I know the Chinese don't want much more from their domesticated acting whores, but here we're at the point where it’s unpleasant to wind up with a clearly uncomfortable actor being in the same piece of work. It's no secret that the script for this gunk existed back in the 90s, and for quite some time Nicolas Cage was attached to it. It's amusing then to see how apparently the only change from its original form was the addition of a female character. She stands confusedly in the background for a good half of the scenes, not knowing what to do, while the two Will Smiths talk about the scars on their souls. This makes it evocative of when one of the players doesn't make it to a D&D gaming session and you have to play out the scenario with the other players and pretend like his character is there in the story with them. And so it goes on and on. Every word is a gem: "It's not a gun time. It's coffee time.", "I cannot sleep. There is where the ghosts are.", all spoken by an actor who, with each syllable, becomes more and more aware of how he's at the end of his career. If David A. Prior was in on the original script, I would believe it. And that was honestly the thing I enjoyed most about the film. It's like watching an old Cannon film knowing all the risks involved. Do you laugh at tabloid stories about poor people who win a hundred million in the lottery and spend it on booze, dope, and hookers in two years? This poor bastard won 140 million from the deadly Bruckheimer-Chinese combo and blew it in a few months on the cinematic equivalent of toluene with a crocodile. Crazy times.
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