‘Gemini Man’ leans hard into its visual gimmick … and that’s about it

Legendary director Ang Lee first dipped his toe into the world of high frame rate cinema with 2016’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” which was shot and shown in select theaters at 120 frames per second (as opposed the usual 24). Lee and executives hoped critics and audiences might give the new look a chance, but the bizarre adaptation of the best-selling novel wasn’t the hit that allowed the format to break through to the mainstream. Perhaps they just needed a real movie star to sell it. So for his next trick, Lee has put not one, but two Will Smiths in an action movie, “Gemini Man.” Too bad everyone involved forgot about the part that actually makes you care: the script.

For what is essentially a tech demonstration of the high frame rate and a completely digital young Will Smith clone character, Lee has dusted off a 22-year-old script from Darren Lemke, on which Billy Ray and “Game of Thrones” showrunner David Benioff also have writing credits. The rewrites over the decades have stripped anything interesting away from the story, which is a mere skeleton, a limp gesture at other, better espionage movies. Smith plays Henry Brogan, a highly skilled assassin who has grown a conscience in his old age. For some garbled reason, his agency turns on him, and he goes on the run with an old pal from the Marines (Benedict Wong) and a young upstart agent, Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). The assassin they send after him is “Junior,” his 23-year-old clone, who was raised by Henry’s former comrade and current genetic mercenary farmer, Clay Verris (Clive Owen).

The plot is as boring and low-stakes as could be. There’s no doodad to find, computer chip to destroy or super-virus to avert. It’s just one young, digital Will Smith chasing older, real Will Smith around Cartagena and Budapest while both Will Smiths grapple with the existential crisis of facing… yourself.