Replicas (Review)
Replicas Is a Movie that Never Manages to Be Greater Than the Sum of its Parts.
Replicas is one of those strange movies that has an intriguing premise but doesn’t manage to do much with it. Part of me enjoyed a lot of the (I’m sure fictional) science that went into the movie exploring the very nature of humanity. Replicas walks a tightrope between the biological and the spiritual as it explores the mind versus the soul. It’s all makes for some incredibly interesting stuff, except it never gets a chance to really get going. Because of that, Replicas feels like there was so much more it could have done with the concepts and ideas it was exploring.
As always, I’m a huge fan of Keanu Reeves. Of course, it’s always more fun watching him in action films, but I find him to be a calming presence in pretty much everything he’s appeared in over the last few years. Replicas is no exception as he plays a brilliant scientist trying to find a way to transfer minds to machines. That alone would have made for a compelling film, but writer Chad St. John (who also wrote last years Peppermint) added a family element to the film early on as Reeves witness the death of his wife, played by Alice Eve, and children. Luckily, being the brilliant scientist he is, Reeves gets to play god through the rest of Replicas as he clones his family and copies their minds to their new bodies.
My biggest problem with Replicas is that it feels like it’s biding its time through most of the movie. The vast majority of the movie focuses on Reeves growing new bodies for his family and figuring out a way to transfer their minds onto blank canvases. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching him figure out how to get things just right, but it feels like the family was only added to the plot to create an aspect of humanity in this sci-fi story. This would have been a fine addition to the film, but Reeves never has a moment where he questions if a soul exists or if his family is who they once were when they come back. For him, the human mind is cut and dry. It’s a collection of all past events coming together as a response creating a human as we might know him. I tend to agree with him for the most part, but for the sake of his character, a little doubt would have given him a chance to as the movie went on. Instead, the end feels very much as though nothing really changed for him and his family, despite the fact that he’s now living with three clones.
Another issue with the film is that it feels incredibly rushed after he manages to bring his family back. There are hints that something might be off with them, but director Jeffrey Nachmanoff doesn’t take the time to explore that aspect. Though I’m sure an element like that would have pushed Replicas further into the realm of horror than sci-fi, exploring the consequences of this new technology and science is a crucial element that should have been included in this film to really round it out. Especially since this would have given Alice Eve a chance to really get a chance to shine on screen. Instead, she and the rest of the family feel more like props to be used in the story of Reeves character. Then again, I guess this goes with the trend of Replicas abandoning the human aspect in favor of a stricter scientific approach.
There are a lot of elements that I enjoyed in Replicas. Reeves seems to be the perfect actor to pull off the role of Dr. Will Foster, a man who wholeheartedly believes in the science he’s devoted his life to. The same could be said for Thomas Middleditch who brings a bit of welcomed comedic relief to the film as a fellow scientist helping Reeves to bring back his family. Even a number of the philosophical questions raised throughout the movie managed to stimulate my mind just enough to get me thinking about what exactly makes us who we are. However, none of these elements really get a chance to shine brightly enough in Replicas to take the film to next level.
I was legitimately hoping for the best with Replicas. However, it has the feel of a movie that pulls its punches, like it’s afraid to throw too much at the audience and overwhelm them. The problem is that it great underestimates the people watching it and instead comes across as a movie that refuses to go far enough. Replicas is a movie that could have been a great one, but instead, it has to settle for being just ok. If it really wanted to be truly great, it should have taken a few notes from last years Upgrade and sought to tell a story that would have challenged audiences to embrace the good, the bad, and the ugly that comes with revolutionary technology. Instead, it comes across as though it has absolutely no opinion on it.
