Replicas

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alice Eve, Thomas Middleditch, John Ortiz, Emjay Anthony, Emily Alyn Lind, Aria Lyric Leabu
Directed by: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction, Thriller
2019

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A scientist (Keanu Reeves) working on transferring consciousness becomes obsessed after his family is killed in a car accident. He pushes the boundaries of the science to bring his family back from the dead.

Review:

Tim: There might have been something worthwhile buried in Replicas, but it's obvious this was a misfire. The movie feels like one of the early experiments run by our protagonists- lots of potential and disappointing results. I suppose there's a few positive things about this movie, but it never shakes the feeling that everything we're seeing is lackluster.

I'm still not convinced this movie knew what it wanted to be. It feels like an amalgamation of different kinds of movies, none of which comes together in an effective manner. In the beginning, it feels like a robot-focused film- the idea is to transfer human consciousness from their fragile, temporary bodies into a robot one. This doesn't quite work and it felt like there was a movie here- how do the scientists overcome the issues? And, what happens once the consciousness is transferred? It felt like a legitimate "danger of technology and playing God film". But then, the protagonist's family dies in a car crash. The movie swerves into a desperate attempt to bring his family back- not as robots, but as clones (or I suppose, replicas) of themselves. This feels like it comes out of nowhere. We were introduced to the robot thing, but I suppose the scientists had time to master the ability to recreate human life from DNA, then speed up the aging process perfectly. The whole transferring consciousness thing comes into play, but it feels like the clone/replica thing came out of left field and it pushes our incredulity even further. There's some exploration of the morality of all this, but not nearly enough. Once we get comfortable with this new, odd direction, the movie swerves again and it becomes this "greedy corporation stops at nothing" film. Now, expected direction changes aren't inherently bad- when done well, they can keep the audience guessing. That's just not the case here. They didn't establish enough of the parameters for this to work. The end result feels like a garbled mess of different ideas, rather than one unified vision. It feels like this movie was created in a committee, where everyone's votes had equal weight. I'm not sure what happened or if Jeffrey Nachmanoff was comfortable directing this story, but it feels like something was quite amiss.

The cast was fine. I actually love Keanu Reeves in the right roles, but it takes a gifted director to know how to leverage Reeves (and his many acting weaknesses). Reeves can be astounding on screen (The Matrix, John Wick). But, without the right director, he can easily be put in a position where his talent is stretched too far and he looks absurd. That was the case here. I never believed him as a scientist. He felt completely miscast in the role. It required too much emotion and he wasn't up for the challenge. Reeves looked really bad in this film. I enjoyed seeing Alice Eve here, but outside of one or two scenes, she doesn't have much to do. She spends much of the movie dead, so that was disappointing. Still, it was good seeing her here. Thomas Middleditch's casting felt a little on-the-nose, but this role is firmly in his wheelhouse and he gives a good supporting performance. John Ortiz was decent. He's not quite as menacing as he believed he was, but he did fine.

A lot of times, the visual effects are an essential component of science fiction films like this. Look at how amazing visuals lifted Ex Machina. That doesn't happen here. I suppose some of the robot scenes are fairly good, but the movie doesn't rely on visual effects that much. This is partially because it's telling a character-driven story and partially it felt like an attempt to keep the budget small.

I didn't hate Replicas. It asked some interesting questions, even if it moves off in different directions and never answers them. There were compelling moments sprinkled throughout the film. Unfortunately, it never feels like a cohesive movie. It's not a movie that ever needs to be revisited and it's ultimately too generic and forgettable.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Traitor, Ex Machina, The 6th Day