Replicas (2018)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  4 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: With a narrative that involves Keanu Reeves' family dying suddenly and him secretly cloning them all in a matter of weeks, Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Chad St. John's 'Replicas,' does have a very interesting thematic concept at the centre of its narrative - that is if we can manipulate the laws of nature like this, what would the consequences and implications be? The problem is that it's ultimately the primary example of a film which tries to explore almost every avenue of almost every possibility around its concept and fails on every count because of it, but you do have to admire it to some extent for trying that.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: In going down almost every avenue around its concept though, it winds up not really exploring anything with any depth or nuance at all. How do concsiousness and body link? Is it fair to clone the dead without their consent? Is it ethical to alter people's memory? What are the more sinister, military applications of such technology? How the heck is Keanu going to explain the absence of his family (and one member he couldn't clone) to everyone in each of their lives? Why does the technology all look like a vision of the future from 1974? These are all issues the film attempts to tackle, but in doing so the script never has time to ponder upon any of them and in the end they come across more as awkward thematic side-notes competing for ink. That's equally not helped by the fact that along with wanting to be a thoughtful science-fiction movie, the film's third-act also aims for fast-paced action-movie territory as Keanu quickly explains away a number of complex issues to descend into a revenge-mission against his questionable employer. That doesn't work either because we don't care enough for any of the characters as the script has spent so much time with everything else, and in the end the result is one of the messiest films you could possibly fathom, and a bit of an embarrassment for everyone involved.
  
  VERDICT: To some extent you always have to admire a film that aims for the sky, but one that barely leaves the ground thanks to a script as messy as 'Replica's is extremely hard to like. There are countless interesting ideas in here, but that's sadly where the buck stops.

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