If you are not into nightmares (Glass), Japanese animation (Dragon Ball Super: Broly), or horror (U.S. Weather Service winter storm warnings), you may be tempted to see Replicas this weekend. Let’s just say this movie will not be replicated anytime soon. Let’s start with the positives. 1. This is a beautiful family. 2. It is not as bad as its 9% Rotten Tomato rating; it is closer to its 41% Audience score. 3. There is a cool robot. On the other hand . . .
Besides plot holes as big as Nebraska, Replicas just can’t decide what kind of film it wants to be. It starts with a medical-ethic theme, then switches to a evil military-industrial-complex topic, next to an escape-or-be-killed thriller, and ends in a robotic futuristic scenario, thereby satisfying no one. And, don’t even get me started on any scene where our hero puts on the goggles! I give this movie 2 Gavels.
Plot
In Puerto Rico, William’s research transferring memories from the brain to another “host” is well financed by Bionyne. After repeated failures, some with disastrous results, the investors threaten to shut down the project. On their way to a weekend vacation, William’s wife and three children are killed in a car accident. Despite a lack of a successful model, William is determined to replicate his family. Among the many problems, he only has three pods to regenerate bodies, and that takes seventeen days. Will he resolve the problem of memory transfer to these new bodies? What about the outside world? Won’t there be suspicions?
Actors
Keanu Reeves as William just moved into my list of Five-Worst actors. He is really a Johnny-One-Note. His brooding style really gets old. Alice Eve as William’s doctor-wife might have been an interesting character had she not been dead or replicating in primordial ooze for most of the movie. Thomas Middleditch is the comedic-conscience of the flick but is neither comedic nor much of a conscience. Finally, you get John Ortiz as the smarmy boss whose part has been done thousands of time before.
Final Thoughts
Turn off your brain for this one. As a matter of fact, this movie may be a metaphor for sucking memory out of your brain. This could be an interesting movie for a documentary explaining all the real science and ethical issues presented. Replicas finished twelfth at the box office on its opening weekend. That is bad, really bad, like headed for the “Worst Movie of the Year” bad. The somewhat good news for Keanu is that John Wick 3 opens May 17. As an assassin, he can brood with the best of them.