Formulated two decades ago, Gemini Man finally managed to move through its development to be shown on the big screens this year. The final product has recently made the news for its many negative reviews, reviewers such as nypost calling it “an often-draggy, muddled misfire.” However, after seeing this movie, I can say that even though the plot has become worn thin with time, the movie sticks true to its action-oriented roots, delivering a few golden moments of adrenaline bliss.

The very first sequence pulled me towards almost trusting the negative reviews, because the whole thing was shot from strange angles, trying but failing to give this scene a “new” and “modern” look. But it does work to quickly establish Will Smith’s character, Henry Brogan, as a very good hitman. However, this sequence provides plenty of evidence to support that he is a very old hitman as well, from the faded special ops tattoo on his forearm, to the grey sideburns that color his hair as he prepares to take a shot.

The story begins to move forward introducing more characters all of which do a good job of creating ties to Brogan, as well as creating some semi-lovable characters, for example, Baron, whose writing and portrayal work to create some moments of comic relief. . The movie then begins to power through its plot, a semi-generic story of a hitman that was too smart for his own good who proceeds to be chased down across the globe by the government he once served. The plot may be overused, but the action that correlates to it is where the movie has some of its shining moments, from the narrow maze-like streets of Colombia, to the catacombs beneath Budapest, the locations gives Brogan new location based props to take his enemies down, making each fight memorable. The action is pretty well choreographed, but experiences some slight repetition, as well as some rather odd instances where the frame rate slows down, pushing the action to go slower for the sake of what is quite a bad slow motion shot. This combination makes the action scenes a hit and miss, with some being chalk-full of Tom Clancy level moments of intensity, and others being a boring throwing of fisticuffs.

The CGI is extremely important to the movie, as it helps create Will Smith’s younger clone, and while the CGI is extremely advanced, the 23-year-old Will Smith sometimes comes off as just really good animation, instead of a real person. The CGI is also dispersed throughout the movie to create nearly impossibly smooth movements and to help speed up fight scenes. For example, when Brogan’s fight in the catacombs of Budapest needed a little more speed than the stunt crew could handle, they simply added CGI. This effect does work when actors are rolling off buildings or doing other insane moves, but can also hinder fights to a degree, turning some moments into a confusing blur.

Overall I feel this movie is getting a bad reputation for no good reason, it really isn’t that terrible of a movie, and there are definitely a few moments that will easily impress any action fan. The CGI may need some work, and its overall placement may be off, but it takes several steps in the right direction with it’s fight scenes and decent CGI. So while its story and plot may be overused, Gemini Man still provides plenty of entertainment value.