Ang Lee's upcoming Gemini Man premiered at the Zurich Film Festival this week and it was not received well. The action-thriller revolves around Henry Brogan, a master assassin forced by a corrupt and merciless system to confront a clone of himself, who he attempts to save from their shared dark path.
Critics praised some of the visual effects but stated that the writing was sloppy, leading to poorly written characters, a muddled plot and lousy dialogue. Critics such as Variety's Peter Debruge called the film "An awfully lazy action movie," while The Hollywood Reporter's Stephen Dalton called it "A dumb, depthless and undemanding fanboy pleaser." At the time of writing, Gemini Man currently holds a critic score of just 20% on the review aggregate, Rotten Tomatoes from 10 reviews.
Gemini Man sat in development hell for roughly two decades before Skydance Media acquired it from Disney and placed it in the hands of award-winning director Ang Lee (known for Life of Pi, Brokeback Mountain and more). Numerous actors, including Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery and Harrison Ford were attached to star at one point or another before the lead role was finally given to Will Smith, who plays both Henry Brogan and -- through the magic of CGI -- his younger, aptly named clone, Junior.
Whether or not audiences will agree with the critic reviews remains to be seen. The film is still more than a week away from its theatrical release.
Opening in theaters everywhere on October 11, Gemini Man is directed by Ang Lee from a script written by David Benioff, Billy Ray and Darren Lemke. The film stars Will Smith, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Clive Owen and Benedict Wong.