Replicas

wegs

wegs

Matter and Pixie Dust
Valued Senior Member
Recently watched the movie Replicas, starring Keanu Reeves.

The plot centers around how a scientist (Reeves) loses his family in a car accident (Reeves is the driver), and he'll stop at nothing to ''bring them back.'' As clones of course. You will need to really tap into suspension of disbelief for this film, but it started off well-intentioned. The thing with Keanu Reeves movies - they're either laughably bad or amazingly great. This was ...laughably bad. I really wanted to enjoy it, but when high speed chases start, the rest of the movie is downhill from there. It was kind of like Frankenstein meets Sophie's Choice...but, it really could have been great. I'm all for far-fetched sci-fi dramas, but the problem with this film, it felt like it was trying to manufacture emotion, when all the writers needed to do was hook the audience in with a bit more to go on. You just felt literally nothing for the family when they all die...that sounds vapid I know, but ...it's the writers' job to make me feel something. If they fail at that, it's on them.

Plot holes all over the place, cringe acting, and the ''science'' wasn't explained well. It jumped around too much, and just when you thought they'd explore the science aspect a bit more, the scene would flit somewhere unrelated. That's it, the film wasn't relatable. Unlike The Shape of Water (which was by far one of my FAVORITE sci-fi movies), it lacked depth, warmth, and character. And a competent writing staff, oof! Sometimes, sci-fi writers think that they can get away with just about anything, simply because they're in the sci-fi genre. Well, they still need to connect the dots somewhat, for the viewer. With this movie, it was quite rushed, boring, and inevitably comical.

Sci-fi movies need to rest on more than just sci-fi, for me personally. And leave out high speed car chases, please. Those are so utterly stupid, I can't. I won't spoil the ending...because I didn't see it. lol (I just couldn't go on) It was one of those movies where you're like...who came up with this, and why did they go through with it? At least in that fashion, anyway.

If you've watched this movie, let me know your thoughts. I'm curious if I'm being too harsh.
 
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Sounds like a film that was written as a thinker, before some exec came along and said "Needs more explosions and car chases. You can cut out the "chick stuff" to make room."
 
DaveC426913 said:
Sounds like a film that was written as a thinker, before some exec came along and said "Needs more explosions and car chases. You can cut out the "chick stuff" to make room."
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Exactly! Plus, the 'science' parts of the movie were supposed to be ''oooohhh'' and ''ahhhh,'' but I was like...huh? As you say, Hollywood took over and made it all look so cheesy. Part of the problem too was that nothing seemed to be happening for minutes at a time. Just wasted time, then they'd rush through a scene as if to make up for that. Awkward scenes with a few side characters who lent nothing to the overall plot.

You know it's bad acting, when there isn't much difference between the family before it was cloned, and after. :rolleye:
 
This is the same problem that you get with an interesting subject when the Discover Channel gets hold of it and ruins it with dramatic music...like "Shark Week".
 
wegs said:
but the problem with this film, it felt like it was trying to manufacture emotion,
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blair witch shaky camera everyone talking up n down like they are in a constant state of emotional panic ?
or just flat ?

wegs said:
And leave out high speed car chases, please.
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lol eeewww !
high speed car chases is a cheap sell out for sci fi
it needs to be pod racers or something out of star wars chasing the assassin

"everybody loves a good car chase" .... ummm ? ... hard pass !
they remove the single 1 important word "good" & think everything else will make up for it.

they probably spent all their money on keanu

after writing this
i watched half the trailer
the audio is all F_cked up

its the artistic director & their style
they are copying a very fleeting style of movie
it was not successful outside the one or two types of specific movies which were almost tragedy romantic comedy's of sci fi
hovering between tomorrow land and the dystopian future AI concepts of apocalypse end of civilization movies.

ive seen a few movies like that
mostly all are AI type
will smiths IR Robot was 1 of the starters
Species etc is the outliers
the effects looks really top class
but the director needs to be changed & the artistic director
the audio timing & sound and frame cantor is a complete F_ck up

what they are doing is using sound and frame & scene timing to try and artificially create what the writers have not created
its an artistic director trying to set up panoramic cinematography to service a need for in-depth character & story building which drives that emotional class of movie into a top class movie

i can see what you mean weggs
they butchered what could easily be a very very good movie
barbarians !
i love keanu reeves he's awesome
supporting actor looks very good
digital cinematography and sets looks amazing!

but you cant apply a lack of script and back story content for a dystopian feeling of tragedy to create emotional content
that's complete bullshit !
F_cken idiots
 
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