Seeing double in turbo-charged action thriller

Gemini Man

12A, 117 mins

★★★★★

In an age of garish excess when cinema audiences demand more, two Will Smiths in Ang Lee’s turbo-charged action thriller must surely be better than one?

Alas, one iteration is a 23-yearold clone of the Fresh Prince, brought awkwardly to life using state-of-the-art digital trickery, motion capture performance and the leading man’s voice.

The result is a curiously plastic and inexpressive doppelganger, who is ordered to put a bullet through the head of his older self.

We feel every second of the 117-minute running time, which sags before a final showdown that reduces one sleepy corner of the state of Georgia to rubble.

Our hopes for a revival of Smith’s career lie motionless in the debris. He plays former marine turned sniper Henry Brogan, who is contracted by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to carry out hits on foreign targets.

Henry successfully neutralises rogue scientist Yuri Kovaks (Ilia Volok) on Belgian soil.

When the dust settles, old pal Jack Willis (Douglas Hodge) delivers a bombshell: the intelligence on Kovaks was bogus. Before Henry can confirm suspicions of DIA interference, he is targeted by a covert military unit called Gemini run by Clayton Varris (Clive Owen).

The assassin is Henry’s younger self, who can anticipate his every move. Unsure who to trust, Henry calls on FBI surveillance operative Danny Zakarweski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and good friend Baron (Benedict Wong) to help him outwit his mirror image.

Gemini Man stretches a flimsy, linear plot close to two hours.

Smith sheds his trademark wisecracks and most of the charm in a thankless lead role.

“It’s like watching the Hindenburg crash into the Titanic,” Varris snarls following one botched attempt to assassinate Henry.

Lee’s film isn’t quite that calamitous, but it is a fire-scorched mess.