Henry Brogan is the best sniper there is. He has spent his life shooting terrorists and those who help them. But when he retires, he discovers that his most recent target may have been an innocent man, and retiring from the top secret government agency is permanent.
He ends up on the run with help from an old friend and a young agent as they try and piece together the facts. But the biggest issue is the incredibly skilled young men sent after Henry. As the trailers revealed, Henry has been cloned and it was sent off to kill him. Younger and all his skills give Junior the advantage over Henry.
But Ang Lee is not interested in simply pitting two forces against each other. Instead, Henry is more interested in altering Junior’s path from that of a brutal killer. It helps keep things from getting two formulaic in the action genre. The action scenes are really well choreographed and well edited. I like the characters, but the story kind of falls apart towards the end.
The big talk around the film is the use of High Frame Rate. I saw this film in the standard frame rate, and I must confess, I am not sure the film would benefit. There were outdoor scenes that looked like characters were just in front of green screens, HFR seems like it would make that stand out more.
The film uses cutting edge digital technology to create a digital Will Smith that is imposed over another actor. And it never quite looks natural. While the digital de-aging Marvel did with Nick Fury in Captain Marvel looked like a younger Samuel Jackson, the digital puppet for Gemini Man looks like an artificial creation.
Gemini Man is an okay film with some good performances and great action, but it is not destined to be a sci-fi classic.
Director of the Fifth Element, Luc Besson, returns to Science Fiction with Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Based on the french comics Valerian and Laureline, this is a visual science fiction feast. An early sequence indulges in a beautiful ocean planet that seems to be just ocean and beaches. The alien species are tall slender humanoids of grace and beauty. But it is disrupted by falling ships, which incinerate the planet. We are then introduced to Major Valarian and Sergeant Laureline, who seem to be enjoying a pleasant day at the beach. This is revealed to be a hologram, and they are actually on their way to a special covert mission. And so begins the continuous roller coaster of a story.
Tripping Through Gateways 