Midlands Review of Replica The Shadow
midlandsmovies • September 10, 2020
Replica The Shadow
Directed by Jake Bentley
2020
Starring: Michael Harrison, Carmelo Viviani, Daniel Newton, Andrew Hollands
The ThreeLancers (see what they did there?) is a prolific production company founded by Michael Harrison, Jake Bentley and Charlie Humber-Thomas. Alongside freelance work, the trio has made a name for themselves writing, directing and producing short films and perhaps their most notable works is the Replica series.
Replica started life four years ago as a trilogy released online. These shorts followed Isidore (Michael Harrison), a replica sympathiser (perhaps a replica himself) who is part of the revolution against humans.
If it sounds familiar, that’s because Blade Runner hangs heavy over the series; instead of the titular replicant hunters, we get Shadows – a covert special operations team; the lead replica is named Roy; while the backstory of Aurora (Shantelle Keech) riffs on the climatic face-off between Deckard and Roy Batty. Even the name Isidore is taken from a secondary character in Philip K. Dick’s source novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Far from a straight rip-off however, the films cleverly focused on smaller moments. It’s never implied that Isidore is key to the revolution, in fact much of it happens off-screen and the filmmakers use their Lincolnshire surroundings to great effect, framing them as colonies or areas outside of vast metropolises. This allows them to use CGI sparsely, making the futuristic backdrops or action sequences all the more impressive.
The latest addition to the series is The Shadow, which acts as a prequel and follows an unnamed operative (Harrison) hunting down the first replica (Carmelo Viviani). Though the plot sounds even closer to that of Blade Runner, The ThreeLancers have clearly grown through their prolific output and this feels less like a homage and more like its own entity.
Harrison is stoic as The Shadow; a man facing an unprecedented task and being forced the question the world around him. Viviani also makes the most of the smaller antagonist role, clearly taking influence from Rutger Hauer but never parodying.
Whereas the earlier entries were guilty of hammering home plot points through the dialogue, this lets the action speak for itself. While never purposely obtuse, it lets moments breathe so that the audience can come to their own conclusions. Throughout the brief nine-minute runtime, a vast world is built that fits in wonderfully with the Replica trilogy.
Matthew Tilt
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