It’s hard to say that Will Smith might have lost his blockbuster status at some point, but then again it’s hard to say with a straight face that he was entirely redemptive with all but one of his last few attempts. Aladdin, as Scott Mendelson of Forbes puts it, was Smith’s ticket back to prominence since quite honestly the early criticism that came his way when he was first introduced as the blue-skinned Genie was absolutely brutal. But it would already seem that Aladdin has been one of the best live-action Disney movies that’s been released since Beauty and the Beast, since it would sound as though The Lion King has received a lot of mixed reviews no matter how good of a spin people want to put on it. That being said it’s a wonder at this point if Gemini Man is going to be another movie that will put him on top, or close to it, or will force him to sink once again into a state of mediocrity where people will still remember him, if only for his earlier successes.
You can easily say that Will Smith is a legend in his own time since he’s created several movies that have been nothing less than great, but throughout the last decade or so a lot of his career has been hit and miss since movies like After Earth, and his omission from Independence Day: Resurgence, seemed to cause his popularity to dip just a little bit. With the upcoming Bad Boys 3, assuming it doesn’t get derailed for some reason, and whatever other projects he might be working on, Gemini Man seems to be his chance to step back into the game on a positive note. The premise is simple enough since he’s playing the part of an assassin that’s being targeted by a group that has effectively cloned him and sent the younger of the two after the aging killer. What makes it interesting though is the connection between them since from a practical and logical standpoint we aren’t exactly bound by our genetic material once it’s out of or away from our bodies. But the clone that is created from Smith’s character is able to anticipate the elder assassin, and vice versa. In fact they seem so well matched that they might as well be in each other’s heads, which normally wouldn’t be how it works since innate skills aside, the act of anticipating an opponent and learning their movements well enough to predict them tends to take a while. But there’s a strange connection here and a lot of it seems to come from the process of cloning.
While there are no laws firmly set against human cloning in the US, yes I checked, the technology still isn’t quite there, meaning we don’t yet have fully-grown clones that were engineered, not born, roaming around. In this movie though the only explanation that makes sense is one that’s already been teased in the trailer, the clone and the assassin can somehow anticipate each other, as though they know each other’s moves before they make them. As I’ve said already this is possible, but usually only after months if not years of getting to know someone and their habits. You could argue that a person that has been cloned might pick up those same habits and thought patterns without fail, but it still seems to be a stretch. It could make for an interesting movie however since it would indicate that no matter how skilled he is, the assassin will need to pull out all the stops to stay alive. In the trailer it’s shown that the assassin and the clone do eventually contemplate their existence and what it means, but it would seem almost obvious to the audience at this point. The clone’s handlers wanted someone that had the skills and mindset of the man they were targeting, and as a result they cloned the same individual they wanted dead so as to create the perfect killer.
Of course it sounds far fetched, it’s a fictional movie and something that’s apparently not as action-packed as it might seem in the trailer according to some people. Whether it could be Smith’s way back in to the elite, if he ever left, is still a big question to pose since after a few of his movies like After Earth and Suicide Squad it’s hard to say that Gemini Man would be the ace that would give him any status he might have lost over the years. One would think that Aladdin would have done that, but then again people are willing to believe just about anything that they’re told these days. If Gemini Man is successful then it will be a big up for Smith, but if it isn’t then he still has enough star power to stick around for another attempt at least.
Follow Us
