Will Smith might no longer be regarded as the biggest star in the business, but it isn’t like the former Fresh Prince has fallen on hard times. A series of critical and commercial disappointments over the last few years had many wondering if his star was finally beginning to fade after spending more than two decades at the pinnacle of the A-list, but thanks to Suicide Squad and Aladdin, two of his three highest-grossing movies ever have been released since 2017.
Not only that, but Bad Boys For Life is still the biggest box office hit of 2020, and it could very well retain that title for the rest of the year based on how slowly the theatrical industry’s reopening plans are moving along. However, it isn’t all good news, with the 51 year-old recently headlining one of the biggest bombs of his entire career, and his fans who clearly didn’t head out to their local cinema to catch Gemini Man will be able to see it on the small screen when it hits Amazon Prime next month, on September 18th.
Having Will Smith team up with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ang Lee for an action-packed high-concept sci-fi blockbuster seemed like a match made in heaven when it was first announced, but based on how the finished movie turned out, it seems hard to believe that this was the pitch good enough to rescue Gemini Man from almost a quarter of a century stuck in development hell.
The digitally-created younger version of Smith is fine as long as it doesn’t do anything except remain perfectly still, and the action sequences see Lee more occupied in playing with the fancy new visual effects and camera technology at the expense of creating any genuine thrills or excitement. In the end, Gemini Man could only muster $173 million at the box office on a $138 million budget, making it the fourth biggest dud of last year behind Dark Phoenix, Terminator: Dark Fate and Cats.
