Will Smith in Gemini Man from Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films.
Ang Lee, the Academy Award winning director of Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi, believes in a technology that actively makes my brain tingle. His latest film, Gemini Man,was filmed in what is known as “high frame rate,” a process that renders a film far too sharp and realistic for human eyes to comprehend. The most stressful part is that I still didn’t witness Lee’s intended vision; I saw Gemini Man in 3D at 60 FPS, while Lee’s preferred version is a whopping 120 FPS. Normal movies are only 24 FPS. That seems impossible. I am going to try to summarize how a high frame rate film felt. I will fail.
Reflections looked too real. Water looked too real, like I was looking at an aquarium. Lee was right – I did feel inside the action, but way too close. Griffin Newman of Blank Check once said that the HFR of Lee’s previous feature, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, felt like “a violation of personal space.” I felt like Cate Blanchett at the end of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: the knowledge was too much. I didn’t need to see Will Smith move so smoothly. High Frame Rate is overwhelming and distracting.
Fortunately, Gemini Man doesn’t demand intense scrutiny or thought. It’s a tight story about what happens when you meet a clone of yourself and he becomes your friend after you fight. There are only five important characters, and two of them are Will Smith. The action scenes are fun, but I kept tensing up because of the frame rate and 3D. I could see everything, and couldn’t concentrate on any of it. I need to see the film again at a normal frame rate before I can pass judgement. Younger CGI Will Smith looked great until the very last scene, where he looked like an uncanny nightmare. It was as if the finale had been filmed two weeks before the film’s release. Lee made such a big deal out of this digital technology, and he fumbles right at the end? Strange.
Overall, I do not think high frame rate would enhance a great film. Why risk any distraction from your narrative with flashy technology? We’ve seen the public attitude toward 3-D wax and wane through the years. After this and Billy Lynn, is there an audience for HFR at all? Lee may continue to think so, and maybe he’ll finally get what he sees in his head, but until then I’m sitting it out.
Gemini Man
2019
dir. Ang Lee
117 min.
Now playing everywhere (though the Hassle recommends the Capitol Theatre, Apple Cinemas, or your local independent multiplex)
