Entertainment Studios
Keanu Reeves stars in 2019’s first sci-fi film of the year, Replicas. The marketing for this film has been horrible. The first time I saw a trailer was last week when watching The Orville on Fox. I saw the film’s title on Box Office Mojo, but I never cared to look more into the film. After watching the film, I can see why there was hardly any money put into the marketing campaign.
Reeves stars as William Foster, a brilliant neuroscientist who loses his wife, son and two daughters in a tragic car accident. Utilizing cutting-edge technology, William comes up with a daring plan to download their memories and clone their bodies. As the experiment begins to spiral out of control, Foster soon finds himself at odds with his boss, a reluctant accomplice, a police task force and the physical laws of science.
I don’t know what to think of new movies starring Keanu Reeves. They can either be great like John Wick or terrible like Destination Wedding. I enjoyed watching Reeves in some of his earlier work like The Matrix, Hardball, Speed, and Point Break but as he got further in his career, he started taking on smaller roles that didn’t stand out. Replicas can be shelved under one of Keanu Reeve’s worst movies.
The concept for Replicas intrigued me enough to go see this movie. I enjoy movies where an individual uses technology when dealing with an unethical situation. The movie started off promising with Reeves failing at his work but was determined to try again. After trying to transfer memories of a recently passed man to an AI, his failed attempt at breaking the boundaries of science leads him to leaving for a trip with his family. After his family dies in a crash on their way to their vacation spot, the film slows down and loses its focus. The film goes from Foster trying to succeed at cloning his family to him wasting precious time with him family.
Reeves acting was wooden and unbelievable. tweet
For a film that is dealing with brining back one’s family and stealing company technology to proceed with their plan, it feels slow and casual. Foster spends 17 days trying to transfer his family’s memories into the clones, which makes the situation never feel urgent. The choices Foster made during the 17 days were questionable and lead to the film not feeling suspenseful at all. Foster spends his time writing friends of his son and daughter acting as them and caressing unicorn-stuffed choices. Even after his family is back, all he does is make French toast and go on runs with his wife.
Alice Eve eventually catches on to what has happened with her and this was a good time to progress the dynamics between Foster and his wife. She started to experience side affects to being cloned and questioned how everything happened. The film never follows through with these moments which makes the scenes with Foster and his cloned family never feel important.
Keanu Reeves is a great actor with plenty of impressive performances under his belt, but his acting was wooden and unbelievable. Even in the darkest times of his character’s life, he didn’t show emotions that made it seem as if he was sad over losing his family. Thomas Middleditch is the only believable character in the film. He is constantly questioning Foster’s choices to clone his family.
The film completely takes a turn at the end and introduces a side plot with Foster’s work that feels unwelcomed. By the time the film reveals a new plot point, the original storyline hasn’t had a chance to fully finish its initial intentions. Even after switching up the story, the film continues adding new story elements that made me scratch my head and question the writing choices. If the film would have stuck with the plot it had originally created, it could have had a chance to feel impactful towards the end, but it felt wasted towards the middle half of the movie.
January always ends up being the time that studios dump bad films after everyone is poor from the holidays. Last week we saw a decent release with Escape Room and there are some promising titles coming soon this month, but Replicas is a bad movie that reminds me why January is an unpleasant month for movies.
Replicas has a run time of 1 hour 47 minutes and is rated PG-13 for thematic material, violence, disturbing images, some nudity and sexual references.
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