Tiffany Scott
Executive Business Manager
Keanu Reeves’ new film “Replicas” disappoints with an illogical plot and a lack of decent acting.
Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff and produced by Company Films, “Replicas” was released in theaters across the country on January 11th, 2019.
Keanu Reeves plays Will Foster, a neuroscientist working for Biodyne, a biotech company developing a process for transplanting human consciousness into robots. Foster makes a breakthrough with a personal tragedy when his wife and children are killed in a tragic car accident. Instead of calling the police, Foster decides to clone their bodies, and transfer their memories into the clones.
The film manages to be relatively entertaining for the first half, mainly because of the sheer absurdity of its storyline. But it eventually devolves into tedious thriller scenes, including Foster and his family being pursued by the agents hired by Foster’s boss. The film is essentially a combination of every mediocre science-fiction movie that has ever existed.
The film is so consistently illogical with its many mistakes that it completely misses all attempts at a storyline and character development. “Replicas” starts out as a variation on the Frankenstein theme, with humans meddling in affairs of existence. But as the movie escalates, the tone switches from a mad-scientist drama to a brain-dead thriller and drops any kind of cautionary moral themes it might have had.
The lack of emotion in the acting is extremely prevalent. Following the death of Foster’s family, he did not spend any time to mourn or be depressed. Instead, he went straight to trying to find a way to clone them. This could have been resolved if the film was paced out more evenly, but unfortunately, it wasn’t, and the entire process of him losing his family is stuffed into 15 minutes.
The film attempts to present big themes of morality and identity, but it fails to deal with or answer them. Ethical dilemmas are thrown out of the window. The screenplay is perhaps the worst offender. It acknowledges most of the problems involved with bringing dead humans back to life, but it deals with them quickly and carelessly, as if sweeping details under a rug.
The cinematography and effects are also extremely mediocre. It seems like the filmmakers spent most of the budget on creating the 3D maps and images they play with on screen. Instead they probably should have made sure the cyborgs were up to par with today’s Syfy standards. Rooms are not well lit behind characters, and there is rarely a time where more than a few people are on screen at the same time.
“Replicas” could have been a great thriller if literally everything was changed and altered. Don’t bother watching the film in theaters, instead wait until it comes out on Netflix, grab a couple friends and watch the film as an unintentional comedy.
“Replicas” is rated PG-13 and is playing in theaters nationwide.
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