Update, 7/25/19: Wow, Will Smith really was a visionary with a long term plan. The actor shared the new trailer and featurette for his upcoming sci-fi action film, Gemini Man, with a special intro he definitely recorded way back in 1989.
As for the film itself, not only does this trailer give us more about the plot and the bigger mystery at the heart of the story—especially Clive Owen’s role—but the younger Smith looks much better than he did originally. That was our biggest problem with the first trailer, and whether they chose better looking scenes or they improved it with more post-production, being able to visually accept Smith’s 25-year-old clone as real will go a long way to making the movie a success. The featurette at the end of this trailer also explains how the technology deployed by the film is not the kind used for the typical de-aging employed by most films. Will Smith’s younger self is a entirely a digital creation made via performance capture of the actor’s performance.
Will Smith plays an aging assassin facing off against an opponent who can anticipate his every move, in the first trailer for Ang Lee’s Gemini Man. He also plays the man who is chasing after him: his own younger clone.
The first trailer for Ang Lee’s next movie, Gemini Man, is here and it features double the amount of Will Smith found in most Will Smith movies. Smith plays Henry Brogan, “an elite assassin who is suddenly targeted and pursued by a mysterious young operative that seemingly can predict his every move.” The reason Henry can’t seem to out think or out maneuver his would-be killer is because he too is Henry—specifically, a clone 25 years younger, though neither knew about the other’s existence before this mission.
“Siri, show me Looper without time travel.”
Okay, there’s a whole lot to like here, but we can’t ignore the obvious problem of this trailer: the de-aging… it’s not great. In most (though not all) shots, the younger Smith looks too glossy, like he was cloned in a lab located in the Uncanny Valley. He looks more like Leia in Rogue One than he does Nick Fury in Captain Marvel.
Aside from that, we’re very into the premise of this movie and Will Smith playing two roles, because we can’t wait to see how Ang Lee handles the existential questions of life and identity the story raises.
This first trailer seems to only be scratching the surface of what looks like a far bigger mystery. Why was Henry cloned in the first place, and why has Clive Owen’s character tasked the younger version with killing the older one? Someone should really explain to him how much we’ve liked every version of Will Smith, both young and old.
Gemini Man, which also stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Benedict Wong, comes to theaters this fall, on October 11.
Featured Image: Paramount Pictures