Replicas Movie Review

Replicas (2018)

Rent Replicas on Amazon Video
Written by: Chad St. John (screenplay by), Stephen Hamel (story by)
Directed by: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Alice Eve, Thomas Middleditch
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
A scientist specializing in synthetic biology violates the law and bioethics to bring his family members back to life after they die in a car accident

Verdict
Cloning and duplicating a mind have been done more than a few times. This movie not only lacks originality, it ignores the details. The execution of how the movie explores the subject could have set it apart, but the plot is only interested in getting from point A to point B. In the process, logic is all but ignored. The movie is flawed from start to finish. The ending is nothing more than unabated hubris.
Skip it.

Review
This jumps right into dumping a human mind into a synthetic robot looking body. Keanu Reeves plays Foster, a doctor trying to bridge the gap and not only successfully digitize a mind but transfer it to a synthetic brain.

There is very little foundation for the characters, the plot, or even the sci-fi concepts. This takes a giant leap into Foster determined to perfect the process though no other reason than brute force. It would make more sense if he had achieved a transfer, but was undergoing trials to perfect it.

He's never done this successfully and his assistant Ed has never cloned a human before, but everything comes together perfectly when Foster must replicate his entire dead family. The ethic and criminal issues are ignored.

This completely skips over dumping the bodies which I thought might be a plot point with the cops looking into him but it's completely ignored. Foster asks his assistant to do that. Ed doesn't even flinch. Has he ever disposed of a body before? That's a huge ask.
A little bit of drama is injected early when there are only three pods yet Foster has four family members. That resolution, like all the resolutions is underwhelming.

Then Ed is able to haul millions of dollars of equipment to Foster's house so the clones can grow. While this is answered towards the end, it's just a feeble attempt to close that loop.

Foster steals car batteries from the neighborhood to power this experiment. The cops show up and he admits his car battery wasn't stolen. The cops leave and are never seen again. While we're on that topic, how would he even carry a dozen batteries?

The plan is terrible and they should have been caught. While this has some interesting ideas it fails to do them justice. The conclusion is too easy, falling flat. There isn't any meaning behind anything.