The Comparisons in Sound of the Final Fight of "Gemini Man"
Well, this is something I didn't expect to be writing about today. But, after watching and rewatching some clips from the movie, Gemini Man, I felt compelled to write about the differences in sound between the different versions of the final fight on YouTube. For those that don't know, and I'm sure that there are many that don't, Gemini Man is a 2019 science fiction action thriller movie directed by Ang Lee, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and starring Will Smith in a duo role (trio role more like, but I'll get to that). You'll remember last week, I posted a review of Ang Lee's Hulk, which you can go read if you want, so this isn't my first time talking about one of his movies. I even mentioned Gemini Man in that review in the section explaining Ang Lee as a director, and talking about some of his work prior to and after Hulk (2003).
But, what about Gemini Man itself? Well, I've still never seen it. It was one of those movies that I avoided seeing when it originally came out in theaters back in 2019 because of all the bad reviews that it got, and even after watching some clips from it, it still wasn't something that caught my interest and made me think that it was worth watching. The plot and the story just seems kind of weak for the interesting premise that this movie has, and some of the dialogue is a bit awkward. I mean, "So everybody's just targets? And you're just a weapon," and "You made a person out of another person." What kind of dialogue is that? I still reckon that Hulk is likely a much stronger movie than Gemini Man. Not one of Ang Lee's best work.
But, what even is the premise of the movie? Well, basically it's about this assassin named Henry Brogan (Will Smith), who works for a private military company (PMC) called GEMINI (hence the title of the movie) and wants to quit the business because I guess he's developed a moral conscience, and he doesn't want to kill people anymore. That, and the fact that some of the people he was sent to kill were actually innocent and not bad guys at all. But, his employer, Clayton "Clay" Verris (Clive Owen) sends another assassin to kill him, and this other assassin turns to be a younger clone of himself named Jackson "Junior" Brogan (Will Smith). When the two learn of each other's existence, Henry learns the true extent of Clay's evil business empire, and Junior starts questioning his own existence.
So, the two team with up with a woman ♀︎ named Danielle "Danny" Zakarewski (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who I guess was an ally or a business associate of Henry's in the past (I don't know the true nature of their relationship or how long they've known each other), and a pilot named Baron (Benedict Wong) to take down Clay and his empire. That's the basic plot or premise of the movie. It's kind of meant to be a critique of human cloning, as in cloning human beings through genetic engineering 🧬 (breeding humans in a laboratory), and a critique of the military industrial complex. Two things that most people already kind of know are bad, unless they're John Bolton.
Human cloning hasn't actually happened yet, like no body's tried to clone human beings in a laboratory because it's that an unpopular and potential unethical idea that no body really wants to be the first person to try it out. Not that they could since human cloning is illegal in this country, and pretty much all countries all over the world. People are that against it. Ang Lee already critiqued the military industrial complex in Hulk (2003). That's what Josh Lucas's character in that movie, Glenn Talbot and his company, Atheon were meant to represent: the evils of the military industrial complex, and their insatiable need for more profit 🤑 at the expense of peace, stability, and of course innocent people's lives.
What made Gemini Man so notable, and why it even got as much buzz as it did at the time was that it was Will Smith essentially fighting a younger version of himself. A 51 year old Will Smith fighting against a 20 something year old Will Smith. That was kind of the basic idea, the basic draw, and the only way that they could pull it off was to use de-aging effects. Using CGI and motion capture (more accurately, facial capture) to make Will Smith look younger, just like how he did in the 90s, the way he did in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Bad Boys (1995). This was likely the main reason why the movie had been in development hell for so long. They just didn't have the technology to pull this off back in 1997 when this movie was originally pitched and put into development.
They had different actors in mind for the role, like Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, and Sean Connery, but by the time they actually got around making it, Will Smith landed the role because he was a huge star (still is a huge star) and was finally old enough to try this out. It also went through several different directors like Tony Scott, Curtis Hanson, and Joe Carnahan, until it ultimately landed on Ang Lee to direct it and bring it to life. I said in my Hulk review how funny it was that Ang Lee ended up directing two movies that were development hell in his career because Hulk had also been in development hell for years prior to him landing the gig.
But, for all that effort, the de-aging effects received mixed reactions from critics and audiences. Some saying that it looked really good, and others saying that it looked really bad. I lean more towards the side that says that it does look good, at least in the clips that I've seen. Although, when the younger Will Smith moves during some of the fight scenes, it's clear that he's CG, and kind of looks a bit wonky. Like, in the fight in the catacombs when Henry first meets Junior, and they fight each other, the way Junior moves during that fight sometimes makes him look very digital. That's the uncanny valley for you.
Also, Ang Lee for some reason decided to shoot the movie at a high frame rate, 120 FPS (frames per second) to be exact. I don't exactly know why he decided to do that. Some of the sources that I've looked at have given a reason as to why Ang Lee chose to shoot the movie at a high frame rate. Ang Lee didn't do any press interviews for this movie, so we couldn't hear it straight from the horse's mouth as to why he chose to shoot it at a high frame rate. High frame rates are pretty good for video games. 60 FPS is usually considered to be the gold standard for video games, every gamer wants to play their games at 60 FPS. But, high frame rates don't really work for movies.
The problem with high frame rates for movies is that it always makes the movie look like a soap opera. This was the main complaint when Peter Jackson shot the Hobbit movies at a high frame rate, 48 FPS to be exact, that it just made the movie look artificial and made it look like a soap opera. And I have no doubt similar complaints were levied at this movie when people saw it in a high frame rate format.
Pretty much no theater in the world could actually play the movie in its intended frame rate, 120 FPS. The most theaters could play it at was either 48 FPS or 60 FPS. So again, why did Ang Lee do this? It seems pretty unnecessary, and doesn't even seem like it was worth it since most theaters and most home media formats don't have high frame rates, and even when people did see the movie in a high frame rate-enabled theater or home media format, they still didn't like it because it made the movie look like a soap opera. Maybe, it was to make the effects look more convincing? I don't know. I don't know what Ang Lee's thought process was while making this movie, especially since he's never really given a preview into his thought process, and explained some of the choices he made on the movie the way he did with Hulk (2003).
But, let's get into the real reason why we're here, and why I'm even writing this, the sound. The sound design in the movie wasn't very good, particularly the sound design in the final fight where Henry, Junior, and Danny face off against a third assassin sent by Clay in a hardware store, who, surprise, surprise, turns out to be another clone of Henry. Only this one's dressed up like a cyborg ninja with a futuristic sci-fi grey and black form-fitting suit with a black mask with red lenses, and not civilian clothes like Junior was. That's what I meant when I said that Will Smith technically plays a trio role in this movie since there's three versions of him in this movie, each one being younger than the last with this third clone being the youngest one. Did anyone ever think that they'd ever see a movie with three Will Smiths in it? I think not.
The choreography in this scene is great. The actual fight choreography is fantastic, the third Henry clone uses a lot of smooth martial arts moves and acrobatics, and just kicks Henry and Junior's asses for most of the fight. It's not until Danny shoots a gas can (it's like a propane gas used for camping), and lights the third Henry clone on fire 🔥 that they're finally able to defeat him. Junior pops him with his shotgun that fires incendiary rounds, and finally knocks the third clone down.
Not that this third clone could feel any pain since Clay specifically engineered him so that he would feel no pain. To be the perfect assassin, the perfect weapon. But, even if this third clone couldn't feel the pain, he was still mortal, he could still die, and he does die. He dies not being able to feel the pain of being lit on fire 🔥 and being shot at point blank range with a shotgun multiple times, but knowing something was terribly wrong since he could no longer move his body and he was losing his breath. Dying confused and scared. But you get what I'm saying. The choreography in this scene is great, and whoever stunt guy they got to play this third clone before they digitally added Will Smith's face onto him did a good job with it.
The choreography isn't the problem, the sound is. In the original version of this scene, the scene that's in the theatrical version and in most clips on YouTube is kind of subpar. You can barely hear the sound of the punches or the kicks as they make contact on the three guys ♂︎. You can't even hear of the fabric of their clothes as they move around, or hear the sound of their feet on the floor. Yeah, sure, it's a bit more realistic to not be able to hear the punches, but that's not what's the most fun or exciting. I like fight scenes where you can hear the impact of the punches and the kicks, the sound of bones breaking, and the sound of fabric swishing around as the fighters move their bodies around.
That's why I appreciated the re-sound that Tony Jax did of this scene. If you don't know who Tony Jax is, he's basically a sound designer, who specializes in doing sound design for action movies. He's built his entire YouTube channel, a big chunk of his career upon doing re-sounds of action scenes in movies. Making the punches and kicks louder, making the bone-breaking louder, making the gunfire sound more realistic and impactful, and making stabbing and slashing sounds sound more impactful too. He's done amazing work, and his work on this final fight in Gemini Man is proof of that.
I'll show you both Tony Jax's version of this scene, and the regular version of this scene that I found on YouTube. Watch them back-to-back, compare them, and you'll the see the difference. You'll see the difference that Tony Jax's re-sound made in this scene in punching it up, and making it sound more dynamic and more exciting.
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Normal theatrical version of this final fight:
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Tony Jax's version:
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Here's the catacombs scene too.
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Normal theatrical version of the catacombs scene:
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Tony Jax's version:
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