The Trailer:
Director: Gregory Orr
Cast: Stella Maeve, Alexander Nifong, & J. Mallory McCree
Synopsis: While on a camping trip on a remote island, three friends, Tracy (Stella Maeve), Craig (Alexander Nifong), and Derek (J.Mallory McCree), break into a cabin near the campground only to discover something strange has happened to the couple who lived there.. and something strange is about to happen to them.
There are plenty of movies about clones: horror films, comedies, sci-fi thrillers, dramas. So while this idea isn't new, this is definitely an interesting take on the idea. That doesn't imply, though, that Cloned: The Recreator Chronicles isn't without it's fair share of clichés and silliness.
The dialogue is atrocious. There is not one line that anyone speaks in the entire movie that sounds real and/or unique. Everything is so generic and over-explained and over-simplified, that it's like watching a movie for toddlers. You know, easy to comprehend. And honestly, I'm not sure if the script was intentionally written in an over-the-top fashion so as to poke fun at the sheer ridiculousness of the movie or if the writer wrote it in a dead serious way. Either way, the dialogue is something to laugh at. The acting wasn't that great either, though they weren't horrible. I mean each actor had to portray two separate characters. That's gotta be tough. But really, I think it might've just been the writing that was so cookie-cutter and plain that the only way to give their characters some life was to be a little over dramatic and silly. I don't know, I wasn't impressed though. I also spoke of the typical clone clichés, the most important and prevalent in most movies of this genre are the clones' desire to overtake the originals' lives and do whatever it takes to do so. This is definitely apparent in this movie as the clones think of themselves as superior to the originals and believe they deserve a chance at life, one that they won't screw up as the originals have done. But even this isn't a surprise, or rather there is no suspense building up to this conclusion. Within the first ten minutes, or so, we see the couple who live in the cabin being murdered by their clones. So s viewers know how the rest of the movie will play out, which begs the question: why even watch?
As I mentioned before, there is an interesting idea used within this movie that I have to acknowledge. The way in which they became clones (and this is not a spoiler as it is easily figured out fairly early in the movie, though our main characters don't figure it 'til much later) is through a toilet. Yup, a magical toilet. No, I'm kidding... about the magical part, not the toilet. The sewage line, I assume, is somehow contaminated by a some scientists experiment to create clones. So their clones were made from their excrement. Interesting but not necessarily an ingenious idea and not executed very well. I feel like maybe if there had been a better director and/or writer this movie could have been great, but alas we are left with this silliness. Oh, but on a good note, the production value of this movie is top notch. It doesn't look like some low-budget, cheap sci-fi movie. A+ for production.
I understand that this is Gregory Orr's first venture into writing and directing a feature-length fiction story, so I laud him for his efforts and what he accomplished with this film, but next time he better try just a little bit harder. As for this movie, it was somewhat enjoyable, especially if you go into it without many expectations. The silliness of the whole thing might be a little off-putting especially if you're not expecting it. It's not listed as a horror comedy, so that might confuse some viewers. Anyways, would I watch it again? No, definitely not. But I also won't deter yo from watching it.
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