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Parents' Guide to

Replicas

By Jeffrey Anderson, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Violent, nonsensical sci-fi thriller about loss, clones.

Movie PG-13 2019 107 minutes
Replicas Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 10+

Based on 6 parent reviews

Ugzilla
Ugzilla Adult
September 18, 2019
age 14+

Teenage boys probably would like it, otherwise waste of time

Naked body coming out of a pod is PG-13, they don't show detail, and I appreciate that they try to keep it brief and non-suggestive, however I will skip that scene watching this with my 12-14 yr old boys. It spends plenty of time showing a naked female bum, don't need them staring at that at such a young age. The movie keeps the violence at PG-13, but the beginning is traumatic. I think my teenage boys will like it, because they don't expect much from movies yet; doesn't have to make sense, all the plot holes and stupid assumptions as described in this review are real, but teenage boys will probably say "whoah, cool, robots and guns, right on!" I wish there were fewer bad words, but it is PG-13 as opposed to R, which is good.

This title has:

Too much swearing
Leofilmer
Leofilmer Parent of 14-year-old
June 29, 2019
age 14+

Great action

I love this movie. Must see it

This title has:

Too much violence
Too much swearing
See all 6 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In REPLICAS, scientist Will Foster (Keanu Reeves) is working for a company called Biodyne. He's trying to develop a way to transfer human consciousness into a synthetic body, but something isn't quite working. While taking a much-needed vacation with his family, there's a terrible car accident, and Will's entire family -- his wife, Mona (Alice Eve), and their three kids -- dies. Will realizes that he can pair his own knowledge with that of his cloning-expert colleague Ed (Thomas Middleditch) to bring them back to life. Trouble starts when Will realizes there are only three pods in which to grow the clones -- meaning he has to decide which family member to eliminate. Then there's the matter of a looming deadline at work and pressure from his boss (John Ortiz), stolen company equipment, his family's absences in the world, and whether the risky experiment will actually work. Not to mention that Biodyne may not be what it seems.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (6 ):
Kids say (6 ):

This frustrating failure of a sci-fi thriller is so full of lapses in logic and is so consistently nonsensical that its many mistakes completely eclipse all attempts at story and character. Written by Chad St. John (London Has Fallen, Peppermint), Replicas starts out as a variation on the Frankenstein theme, with humans meddling in affairs of existence. But then the movie switches from a mad-scientist drama to a brain-dead thriller and drops any kind of cautionary themes it might have had. As the scientist, the grave Reeves is all wrong; a loopier actor (Woody Harrelson? Nicolas Cage?) could have given the role some camp, but here we're asked to take Will's bizarre plight seriously.

The screenplay is perhaps the worst offender. It acknowledges most of the problems involved with bringing (all but one of) your family back to life, such as why aren't the kids at school? Why isn't Mona at work? But it deals with them quickly and carelessly, as if sweeping evidence under a rug and leaving a huge lump. Plus, it never explains why Ed would go along with Will's harebrained -- and illegal -- scheme. Replicas is the kind of movie in which the main character crashes his car at the beginning and then climbs into another, uncrashed car at the end (as part of a car chase), without any explanation about where it came from. The only thing Replicas might be good for is a few unintentional laughs.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about Replicas' violence. How did it make you feel? Was it shocking or thrilling? How did the movie achieve this effect? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

  • How does this story compare to Frankenstein and other variations on that theme (Pet Sematary, etc.)? What do you think the movie is trying to say?

  • Is Will an admirable character? What are his strengths and accomplishments? What are his faults? Does one side outweigh the other?

  • How does the movie deal with loss and grief?

  • Did Will have the right to delete the memory of Zoe? Why or why not?

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