Keanu Reeves has always been a fan favorite, from major film franchises including The Matrix and John Wick, as well as action thrillers Speed and Point Break. The beloved actor also has his fair share of critical failures, such as his performance as Jonathan Harker in Francis Ford Coppola's operatic version of Bram Stoker's Dracula, which many consider one of Keanu's worst performances and the worst British accent in film history. However, Replicas is a film on a much lower level, thanks to an absurd premise and a script that leads to formulaic plotting and over-the-top acting.

Even apart from the performances and the screenplay, the film's biggest problems are its pacing and timing. The premise may be over the top and implausibly ridiculous, but at least it's intriguing until the film rushes through it, leaving the audience with no real interest. Spectators aren't given much of a chance to learn about the characters (especially the protagonist portrayed by Keanu Reeves) and the film feels mechanical most of the time.

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Replicas is a modern-day version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, in which Keanu portrays a brilliantly skilled research neuroscientist named William Foster, who believes he can successfully bring a person back from the dead by transferring that physically deceased person's mind and neural activity onto a human-like machine. While the body is dead, that person's memories are transferred over to an android. During the film's opening sequence, Foster and his team at Bionyne Corporation (their facility in Puerto Rico) test this cloning theory on a dead soldier by transferring his neural activity to an android called Subject 345, but the experiment fails when the soldier realizes he is now a robot and smashes its face in self-destruction, forcing William to power it off.

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William has to make Subject 345 work with a human brain, or he and Bionyne will be shut down. As tough as that task is, William and his family suffer a horrifying car accident as they take a trip for the weekend. The whole family dies, except for William, who is determined to resurrect them with the tech at Bionyne.

William, with the help of his fellow scientist Ed, take the equipment needed from Bionyne in order to clone the Foster family, including water tanks, cool headsets that can read an individual's neural activity, and stolen car batteries (not from the lab) to keep the power running. The first half of the film is effective in seeing William's determination to bring his family alive again, while Ed does the best he can to help his boss and friend, even though he's freaked out by the whole situation. The technology, especially the virtual headsets, are also appealing.

However, despite an intriguing first half, and characters with likable personalities, the film goes downhill fast because William, his wife Mona, their kids (Matt, Sophie, Zoe), and the other supporting players aren't fully established in this story, making it difficult to care for what happens in the end. Spectators will also get the feeling that they've seen this type of movie before in terms of bringing the dead back to life (Frankenstein being the primary inspiration for this feature).

Keanu has been in better films involving drama, sci-fi, and the supernatural. Of course, The Matrix franchise (with a fourth Matrix film on the way) established his character Thomas Anderson/Neo as an evolving and revolutionary hero determined to free humanity from evil machines. Constantine and The Devil's Advocate each saw him face off against devils and demons who tried to control his way of life.

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Keanu doesn't deliver a terrible performance in Replicas, and while it's admirable to see him play a more vulnerable protagonist, the film's script fails to make his role more compelling, reducing him to nothing more than a desperate man going through the motions to save his family. Questions are raised, such as how did William become a neuroscientist, and what drew him to resurrect the dead? John Ortiz (the comically ruthless drug lord who was one of the best reasons to see Michael Mann's 2006 film adaptation of Miami Vice) is once again a villain here, but is one-dimensional, and his reasons for wanting William to make Subject 345 work isn't entirely clear, other than its use for a stronger military. Instead of making the story just a short low-key thriller, it could have been more of a drama in discussing the themes of resurrection, cloning, and machinery.

In the end, Replicas is a rushed, incomplete film that lacks depth and time to fully embrace its subject matter. There are also some odd, funny moments, such as a scene in which William is looking through his whole family's cell phones and laptops, sending messages to each of their friends so that no one becomes suspicious about their disappearance. Ed also has some tense moments, fearing that he and William will eventually go to jail and be sued for billions of dollars. However, despite these attempts at subtle humor, the film lacks heart and suspense.

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In The Devil's Advocate, Keanu proved that he can portray a confident lawyer and a conflicted husband who has to choose between his career and his wife, while going toe to toe with Al Pacino's devil. This is an example of a fiery, commanding role that was lacking in Replicas, a film that's too safe and hesitant to take seriously as a sci-fi thriller. Hopefully, in the future, he can not only continue his roles in The Matrix and John Wick, but also find more suitable material that fits his comfort level and his versatility as an actor.

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