Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.0

Replicas Blu-ray Movie Review

Same old same old.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 13, 2019

Here’s a little test to see if you perhaps have previously unrecognized oracular powers, or at least the ability to see screenplay clichés without the aid of any special glasses. Let’s say for example that there’s a movie about a scientist who has perfected the ability to transfer the dormant consciousness of a corpse into a synthetic brain housed inside a robot. But let’s say the very first view of this scientist is as he waits impatiently at his laboratory workstation computer, where he has taped a sweet drawing from his young daughter to the monitor, and that he gazes at it lovingly, obviously basking in that warm familial glow that only loving parents can experience. What do you think is going to happen? Well, give Replicas scribe Chad St. John (developing a story by star Keanu Reeves’ producing partner Steven Hamel) at least one kudo, since my hunch is he probably won’t be getting any Academy Awards for this effort: the scientist’s adorable little daughter is not the only family member to be killed in a horrifying car accident, necessitating all sorts of machinations so that the scientist can transfer a whole host of dormant consciousnesses into clones. (Sorry, did I forget to mention there are clones, too?)

William Foster (Keanu Reeves) is that aforementioned scientist, and Replicas is the sort of film that just stops early on for William to deliver a little monologue to his coworkers about what they’re attempting to do, after the delivery of a badly wounded corpse which seems to be the remains of either a policeman (shades of RoboCop) or a soldier. Now one might assume that Foster’s coworkers should already have some idea of what they’re doing, since they’re all surrounded by high tech gizmos and are all incredibly energized about staring at computer monitors and pressing buttons. But of course this gambit is simply a kind of frankly lazy way to let the audience in on what’s going on, but unfortunately this film’s version of narrative exposition is often a pretty bumpy ride, as evidenced by the fact that the whole clone aspect isn’t even revealed until much later in the story. At any rate, unsurprisingly, Foster’s attempts to transfer the corpse’s consciousness into the robot’s synthetic brain doesn’t go swimmingly, leading to Foster’s martinet boss Jones (John Ortiz) informing Foster that funding for this project is about to dry up if Foster can’t brings things to a successful conclusion. Are you sighing yet?

Jones finishes his dressing down of Foster’s “life work” failing by saying, “But, hey, don’t let it ruin your weekend,” but what really ends up causing a bit of trauma for the noble scientist in his time away from work is a car crash that instantly claims the lives of his entire family, which includes wife Mona (Alice Eve), daughter Sophie (Emily Alyn Lind), son Matt (Emjay Anthony), and daugher Zoe (Aria Leabu), the “artist” of the sweet card adorning Foster’s work computer. Of course, death is merely a waystation for a scientist of Foster’s ability, and after recruiting his assistant Ed Whittle (Thomas Middleditch), and absconding with all sorts of high tech gizmos from his workplace, Foster begins the supposedly arduous process of preserving his family’s consciousnesses in a “new, improved” form. So, is he going to be living with a bunch of robots? Well, of course not — because the film simply trots out the datapoint that the “real” end result of all of this experimentation is to transfer consciousness into clones . Only guess what? — in yet another “because I said so” moment from scenarist St. John, there are only a “limited supply” of “clone pods” available, meaning Foster must make his own high tech version of Sophie's Choice to decide which of his family members to sacrifice. Let’s just say little Zoe doesn’t make the cut, leading to all sorts of new (if not necessarily improved) complications, since he doesn’t want his cloned family members grieving her loss.

It’s hard to know where to even begin with what ails Replicas. It could be a production design which doesn’t shy away from offering androids suspiciously similar to the ones in I, Robot, or a conceit involving a kind of “holoscreen” interface that is suspiciously identical to the one utilized in Minority Report, down to and including the manic arm motions needed to move “data” around, in moments that look like they were choreographed by Twyla Tharp on some exotic controlled substance. But those are really just kind of tangential problems that reside on the margins of some unbelievably boneheaded writing. This is a film that just repeatedly blasts through near fortresses of illogic to get to its supposedly “mind blowing” (synthetic or otherwise) final moments. Here’s a little sampling of my oracular powers: after this disaster, I'm sensing another John Wick in Keanu Reeves’ future. (Okay, I cheated a little: there's a trailer for John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum included on this disc.)

Note: Often theatrical reviewer Brian Orndorf tends to like things a bit less than I do, but in this case he found Replicas considerably more intriguing than I did. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

Replicas Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Replicas is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Once again the IMDb comes up short on technical data, but a bit of digging online unearthed some Facebook posts where Arri Alexa capture was mentioned (hashtagged, actually) with regard to the cinematography of Checco Varese, and I'm once again assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. Aside from some pretty wonky looking CGI (it almost looks like interlacing artifacts afflict some of what I'm assuming was greenscreened), this is a sharp and well detailed looking presentation which benefits from generally decent lighting conditions which in turn help to sustain fine detail levels. Some of the lab interiors are a little hazy looking at times, an aspect probably not helped by the ever popular cool blue grading choices, and perhaps more understandably the car crash sequence is pretty murky, since it takes place at night in a torrential storm, ending up in an unfortunately located body of water.

Replicas Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Replicas' DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track gets some good workouts courtesy of effects like the roar of a helicopter in the early going, or, more frequently, the "bells and whistles" (literally, in some cases) of the lab environment, where all sorts of "high tech" sounds can dot the surrounds. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly and there's good attention paid at various moments to directionality, especially in some of the crowded lab scenes. Fidelity is fine throughout the audio presentation, and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Replicas Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Jeffrey Nachmanoff and Executive Producer James Dodson


• Imprint Complete: The Making of Replicas (1080p; 25:45) is a bit longer and more in depth than many of these EPKs, but really doesn't offer much in the way of insight.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 8:12) contain timecode captions and other identifiers.

Replicas Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I had a kind of cheeky idea about how Replicas might have been a more exciting story: how about if Jones and Whittle were in a conspiracy to replace Foster's family (perhaps after some kind of horrible accident), without Foster's knowledge? I think something like that might have given this enterprise a bit of energy that it's lacking in its current state. Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.