Realive (2016) User Reviews

Thoughtful Science Fiction

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 14 May 2017]

When Marc Jarvis (Tom Hughes) is diagnosed of an incurable throat cancer, the plans his life to commit suicide and keep his body cryogenically frozen in the Progeny Company awaiting for technology to revive. In 2084, he becomes the first man to be successfully revived by Dr. West (Barry Ward) and his team. The nurse Elizabeth (Charlotte Le Bon) helps Marc in his recovery and he learns that his beloved lover Naomi (Oona Chaplin) did the same expecting to live with him in the future. However Marc finds previous fails in the project with several casualties. Further, he is losing his only belongings – his memories – and he does not recover his previous health. Out of the blue, Marc takes a decision for Naomi and him.

"Realive" is a thoughtful sci-fi by Mateo Gil, the writer of the magnificent "Abre los Ojos". The story is interesting, approaching themes like ethics, afterlife without the original memories, adaptation to a future society with different moral and behaviors and so on. However the narrative is too cold despite the intriguing screenplay and the film does not work well. Marc Javis and Naomi should have been better developed in the beginning in order to make these characters likable. The hot Charlotte Le Bon is also wasted in a very limited character. Anyway, the story is original and provides a different view of immortality that makes the viewer think. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not available

More philosophy than sci-fi, true, but not lacking in the sci either

[littleitaly-71510 · 6/10 · 7 October 2017]

So, a lot of people went into this movie expecting to be dazzled by hi- tech conceptualizations of the future, and were disappointed. That's understandable. The tech is a background at best, although every character does seem to blend seamlessly with it. It is a background that is tastefully crafted, realistically employed and never flickers.

To add insult to injury, however, the 2 hour hypotech is stuffed with sentimentality and philosophy, rather than action and sex, as many sci- fi's are. For most people, action and sex are a far better filler than the heartfelt musings of a struggling soul, regardless of the context.

For those of us not seeking to escape to the future, we were treated to a salient, cerebral wine-tasting, of sorts...and a sobering one at that. The film seems to offer up so many spiritual, cultural messages, from so many vantage points, that it's impossible to label one bottle and drink from it. For the single-minded it's a mess. For others, it's an awakening to new flavors of suffering, and a perversion of our taste buds. Some things, once sweet on our tongue, now stain with an aftertaste. Other drinks, like death, may now crisply tinkle in the glass and repel us a bit less.

All I'm saying is that this film is more art than entertainment. Some people drink wine to get drunk and have sex. Others sip it carefully to explore its variety. Realive is certainly a film for the sipping class.

A muddled yet thought provoking story on bioethics, cryonics, and immortality

[vibratoguy · 7/10 · 13 May 2017]

This movie opens up a Pandora's box of unexpected outcomes for a man who receives a death sentence from cancer and seeks the hope and promise of cryonics science to keep himself from fading into nothingness. Like the sci-fi movie Ex Machina, Realive explores the ramifications of mankind 'playing God' and what hardships, acceptable failures and yes human suffering would be necessary in order to accomplish the dream of basically conquering death. The lead character discovers that putting faith in science to resurrect you to a life that may be vastly different from that which you were given from birth, may not be preferable to the finality and peacefulness of death itself. Will science be able to reconstitute the recipe that makes you the whole person you are? Or will science recreate merely a vestige of who you were such that the person that emerges after being unfrozen and rebuilt is a complete stranger? Or worse, what if what is re animated is merely an empty, 'souless' 'spiritless' wonder? There are things worse than death. Now if science could account for all the vastness of what makes me who I am and recapture all that for me after freezing and being thawed out, that might be something to consider. But as the main character discovered he was resurrected into an existence that was a far cry from the life he had known both in terms of function and identity.

Who wants to freeze forever?

[kosmasp · 7/10 · 16 April 2017]

This science fiction tale (with a moral standpoint and quite a few serious questions about mortality) is done really well. It may not qualify for a classic, but it's still encapsulates a lot of things that we've come to love from these types of movies. That's literally to a point, where you may recognize where some of the inspiration has been drawn from. But it has enough to say on its own too.

It may seem cliché at points in the story and you may feel like you've seen similar things before, but it's tough to be completely original. It's hard enough to be good in what you're trying to say. And this makes a lot of points about living and dying. And being able to accept things. Some things do not translate as good though and it's tough for the main actor to convey certain feelings that none of us have gone through (to that extend). Still more than solid and very gripping

a point of view (possible spoiler)

[disloes · 20 January 2017]

This is a medical film. And depressing in the way that other films show when they confront the idea of your death (and a calendar to it, such as passengers). One import an idea around is "who are you?" are you your possessions?..or are your memories?. The first idea is when he is preparing for his real dead, giving away his material possessions, and the other when in the future, feels that he is isolated only with his memories. He doesn't belong to the future and is introverted with the "memory glasses". But this idea isn't new. Today we have older people that feels the same. They feel that their time has gone, and are isolated with this memories, an feel they don't belong to the new age. They show that aging is getting tired (Psychologically). Something incredible when you are Young and plenty of life, but this shows in many old people. They have lost their energy, and are tired of living. So, the idea of being immortal...wouldn't be even more tiresome?

excuses for my English.!

Intelligent but cold and slow-moving Spanish/French Sci-Fi with a good international cast

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 6 April 2021]

A thoughtful , original and clever Science fiction with little special effects dealing with a successful and sympathetic artist called Marc : Tom Hughes , but he is really an ill of cancer who chooses cryogenic freeze to wake up in a remote future , as he hopes to be thawed and go on his life. The painter Marc sadly says goodbye to the love of his life , Naomi : Olga Chaplin, but 68 years later he discovers many surprises due to things doesn't occur in the idyllic terms he dreamed earlier dying. Immortality is only a matter of time !

"Realive" is an intriguing and thought-provoking futuristic movie blending past , present and future, including a lot of flashbacks. In the film there is intense drama , philosophy , suspense , a long love story , but it results to be slow-moving and that's why is a bit boring and tiring , though the runtime is adjusted . This pessimist picture isn't an ordinary Sci-Fi , but an intelligent , brooding parable about immortality . It is a serious and cold Sci-Fi in the wake of "Code 46" or "Gattaca" . As the narrative could have been better , but the interpretation , filmmaking and compelling backdrop are all strong . It pays tribute to "Martin Scorsese's The Last temptation of Christ" with Willem Defoe in the emotive scenes when Lazarus is brought back to life . Mateo Gil direction is pretty acceptable , however , displaying some failures , inconsistent developing throughout this strange output , but he gives an usually nice bet it you want to attempt something different if not wholly successful . Performances are uniformly good , as Tom Hughes as the young who becomes the first risen cryonized body in the history mankind , the young Brit woman and Charles Chaplin's granddaughter , Oona Chaplin, as his intimate sweetheart , the French Charlotte Le Bon as the nurse who cares for him whenever he was sick or useless , Julio Perillan as Dr. Serra , Barry Ward as West , Bruno Sevilla , Melina Matthews and cameos from Tony Corvillo and Willem Defoe .

It contains an atmospheric and adequate ciinematography by Paul Esteve . As well as sensitive and stirring musical score by Lucas Vidal . The motion picture was well and decently written and directed by Mateo Gil , though it packs some flaws . Mateo is a notorious screenwriter , as he wrote various films for Alejandro Amenabar as "Agora" , "Mar Adentro", "Abre los Ojos" and "Tesis" . And he has directed a few films as the interesting thriller : "Nobody Knows Anybody" , the romantic comedy "The Laws of Thermodynamics" and a twilight Western : "Blackthorn" . The yarn will appeal to intelligent science fiction movies enthusiasts . Rating : 6/ 10 . Acceptable and passable . Well worth watching .

Do not expect a good sci-fi, expect a pedantic drag.

[vrajabhumi · 3/10 · 4 May 2017]

I didn't read any reviews or see a trailer before watching so I had no preconceptions. Afterwards after reading the other 4 reviews I wondered what the really good reviews saw in this film. My guess is that maybe they expected a film that was less competently made, or maybe they expected a less serious film - and were surprised at how well made and serious this was. My guess also is that the obvious flaws of the film were overlooked or not noticed by them because of how well put together it is, just a guess. The problems with this film outweigh the good production and good story. Those problems are: the slow pacing; repetitiveness; morose lead actor; lack of anything stimulating and generally a drag. To give an analogy I would compare this to a college lecture by a really smart teacher who is really good at explaining the lessons but is dry and pedantic and puts students to sleep vs. an entertaining teacher who keeps students on the edge of their seats. While I am not asking this movie to be Transformers, still the script needed much more work before this was made. The story is interesting and with I imagine a limited budget they were able to pull off an impressive production, but with a boring script it ends up being a waste of time since it is so repetitive and really does not go far enough story wise. This would have worked well as the first 40 minutes of a different story, as it stands it will leave most people cold and few will stay to the end, and if they do most of them will regret it since nothing exciting or entertaining ever happens. It moves slowly and dull till the end.

Romeo and Julia meets Frankenstein

[peterp-450-298716 · 7/10 · 6 September 2017]

"Imagine you were born totally aware and conscious of everything around you. Conscious you were coming out of someone else's body. Joined to it by a bloody cord that you are completely covered in blood. Conscious of the dry air entering your lungs for the first time. The sharp sounds in your ears. The blinding light in your eyes. Conscious that your bones are unbearably soft and your life is so fragile, it could disappear at any moment. That's what being resurrected is like."

Perhaps the initial idea of Marc Jarvis (Tom Hughes) wasn't so bad. The moment he hears he's terminally ill and only has a few months to live, he decides to get himself cryogenically preserved. In other words, he'll turn into a Popsicle. Not forever. Only until the medical world is capable to heal him from his disease, after which he can lead a healthy life again. A great idea but with one disadvantage. And that's something Marc is going to find out afterwards. The downside is that you leave your loved ones behind as well. And it might be that the spirit of the age has changed drastically. Physically, you may be in first-class condition, but the mental state might be a problem.

"Realive" is a grade-A SF with its "Oblivion"-like interiors and appearance. At the same time, it also raises a deep-philosophical topic about eternal life and postponing death. It's not a futuristic machine like in "Elysium" that fixes imperfections and medical problems. It's the evolution of medical technologies which makes it possible to perform medical interventions in an adequate way. But as the movie progresses, you notice that the movie contains a sophisticated romantic story as well. A story about a complicated relationship in which an eternal love is hidden. Marc and Naomi (Oona Chaplin) are having an on-again, off-again relationship for years now. And just as they come to the conclusion that they are made for each other, a deadly disease is the party pooper. From then on they know there's no future for them as a happy, elderly couple.

The film is fascinating enough but also extremely slow. Most of the film takes place in a clinically white, state-of-the-art facility where Marc awakens from his cryogenetic sleep. Not that he's physically the same as in the past, because a lot of his body is being reconstructed with cloned bones, muscles and nerves. Only his brains and some vital organs are retained. He's also connected to a high-tech device using a kind of umbilical cord. His new mechanical mother so to say. And thanks to the "Mind writer" he's able to save parts of his memories. So be prepared to see a lot of flashbacks about his youth and the chaotic relationship with Naomi.

Ultimately, you can say this movie is a modern "Romeo and Julia meets Frankenstein". A film that deals with eternal love and the resurrection of a comatose person. I recently saw "The Lazarus effect" which had a kind of identical subject. Only the imaging of future medical techniques and treatments are created in a very convincing and realistic way. Unfortunately for Marc, emotional relationship between individuals in this futuristic world isn't the same anymore. Eroticism and love are banished to foolish work-groups and are seen as something banal and unnecessary. I'm sure he didn't expect that to happen. Both the outstanding performances of Tom Hughes and Charlotte Le Bon as caring nurse Elizabeth, as the philosophical moral, make "Realive" an engaging and emotional film at the same time. Maybe it's indeed better for an individual's existence to be limited to one particular era. Physiological issues can be circumvented and improved. It's the mental state that can cause problems. So don't expect a happy end in this movie.

More reviews here : http://bit.ly/2qtGQoc

Seriously Depressing

[scottwallvashon-212-123480 · 3/10 · 12 January 2018]

This movie is about a silicon valley snowflake--the alpha-snowflake in a troupe of snowflakes. They form a circle of dinner-partying friends, including man-bun Ken, that has become cliche in television and movies.

The protagonist, Marc, is reanimated in 2084, but the technology is closer to what I would expect in 2030 at the latest. The future he is reanimated into is never shown. I assume this was done deliberately to maintain the sense of sterile hopelessness that ultimately consumes him.

Marc is an unimaginative self-centered garden-variety atheist who "knows" there is no afterlife because he has not been there. He ultimately proselytizes at length about the utter meaninglessness of life that his unique experience has revealed to him and decides to kill himself and take action to keep his old girlfriend (a character from The Big Chill) from ever being resurrected. Marc does not have the foresight to realize that, even though his resurrection is profoundly lacking, technology will inevitably be mastered that makes it possible for him to be completely normal and, relative to his original life, considerably superior.

The film is filled with the typical indictments of industry and medical research that one expects from snowflake dinner-party movies. The doctor is predictably ambitious and only somewhat regretful of the horrors he has caused in the process of attempting to resurrect countless prior subjects before this final pseudo-success. He is prompted, at one time, to say, "What did you expect, a miracle?"

To this, I would have answered, "No, but I expected you to wait and revive me when you were finally capable of something better than this botch-job."

The resurrection itself is done with technology that can easily be extrapolated from present research. The main "nurse" in the story is impressed at seeing artificial muscles. Marc is resurrected without the ability to consume at least some nutrients through his mouth and has to be regularly connected to a mechanical umbilical cord. He is fragile and prone to all sorts of maladies.

This is not so much a futurist movie, or an earth-bound variant of Passengers, as it is a remake of Frankenstein's Monster. Instead of having visible scars on the outside, all of Marc's scars, except the umbilical cord, are on the inside. Marc's hair begins to grow back, but he deliberately has it shaven off (why) and maintains his embryonic appearance of superhuman frailty.

This movie was made by people who, instead of starting with technology and working backward to the story, started with the view of the human condition they wished to portray and forced science and events to conform to their predetermined tale. No one has ever died and been resurrected, but the writers assure us that they have been there and that there is nothing behind the curtain. They use numerous visuals of death, dying and cruelty to reinforce their all-encompassing view. The end product is depressing, melodramatic nonsense.

I gave this movie three stars instead of one because it held my attention to the depressing pointless meaningless wrongheaded end.

Seconds

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 2 September 2022]

Ambitious, not often successful story of a young man who made his way of life triumphantly,and who ,terminally-ill ,chooses cryogenic freeze , to be able to "realive" in the future when the science,in the shape of Dr West (a nod to the excellent "re-animator " feat. Jeffrey Combs ), is able to give him a second chance in another era .

Although there's numerous hints at religion (the Lazarus project :"lazarus ,come forth !"), the fact that immortality may make gain another world but lose your soul ;in fact ,you want to find back what you've lost , but time moves like a jet plane and it's a brand new world you have to face .

Thanks to a brand new technology ,you can record your memories (why not? A hundred years ago ,who would have thought of the computering revolution? ),but those memories are a jumble,for they come from every moment of your life ( cruelty to animals -the lizard and the hen-is gratuitous and pointless);besides , Naomi ,to do what she does ,must have experimented l'amour fou and nothing really shows it (unless a would be torrid sex scene counts);besides, Marc's impossibility to adapt himself to another way of life (the new sex lib is not that much new ,it recalls the hippies) is not fully exploited :it was already brillantly treated in Frankenheimer's sensational film ,"seconds"(1966)

This film is interesting but it is mainly a missed golden opportunity.

This was pure tripe

[phils_phan · 3/10 · 8 December 2018]

Good grief. Why. Why why why. The concept of cryogenics is such a fascinating topic. This movie makes it boring and incredibly tedious. An over privileged spoiled man freezes self when he has a terminal illness and when he's reanimated as the first successful one, he's whiny and dull and unappreciative. Even worse we have to listen to his monologue (soooo dull) over the film and watch his sadistic memories as a kid (lizard shooting? Chicken beheadings? Mean preteen friends?). He doesn't deserve to be reanimated. Then he's told that his life long love never got over him and froze herself at age 50 in hopes to join him in the future. So what does he do? He lets her tank unfreeze so she'll never be able to be reanimated. Afraid she'll be too old for him??? How terribly selfish and cruel. Gimme a break. Can someone write a better movie on this great subject matter please?

Something in recent sci-fi that's not completely ridiculous

[Crankgorilla · 8/10 · 19 October 2017]

Something of a mood piece leaning toward gattica over trek in styling and pace, it's a good one to watch when you've seen almost everything and have a cold or for whatever reason get stuck indoors. It's more mature sci-fi instead of talking rodents and giant smurfs.

Considering a movie has such a short time to convey complicated ideas, this film is put together well and shoots and hits at more of those targets than one would expect.

Presentation is good on all fronts. The lead role could have been written for anyone really, male or female and they had to choose one particular lifestyle to represent the story and the one they chose was OK, but some wont like it.

This is a movie that could have gone longer in many directions. The actual science of it all was done well and can serve as an example of a direction that could have gone longer. That's what a good movie does. Makes you want more.

A once watch flick that makes an impact. I'll buy it for the box art and put it on my recommend list.

Please do not Resuscitate

[orangehenryviii · 6/10 · 10 March 2018]

Essentially there is nothing wrong with this movie other than the basic plot of the story, which bogs down in a mire of pedestrian navel gazing.There is no sci-fi here really to speak of, the future world is only vaguely referred to inside of the reanimation clinic. On the plus side its visually great, and Québécois super hottie Charlotte Le Bon gets her bum out, that alone makes this a must-see.

A Simple waste of time!

[arefin-67466 · 4/10 · 3 April 2018]

It's more of a sad love story than a sci-fi!! Lack of drama, poorly written characters!!

Get ready to glance at the future.

[robbierehman · 7/10 · 11 March 2019]

Its poster says, "Immortality is only a matter of time." And companies like Alcor and others are working on this at this very moment with prophets like Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey preaching Death is only beginning of the journey of what to come. Get ready to glance at the future.

Major spoilers. Don't peek.

[doubtitall · 6/10 · 24 February 2019]

The movie is about a person who commits suicide by cryo-sleep (he says toward the end he had expected to never be reanimated but pretending that's what he was doing gave him a firm end date to his life and that made his little remaining live more fun and his death easier).

Then in the future after a fortune in both money and precious human resources (including both the talent and the sacrifice by those preceding him) is spent reanimating him, he commits suicide again, and this time it's a murder-suicide where he murders the person he claims to love (yes, it's clearly morally murder, since proof of principle of reanimating the cryo-sleepers has been achieved; the others are just waiting their turn for reanimation).

In other words, the spoiled fool lead character is a clueless, utterly despicable murderer. Yet the movie portrays him sympathetically.

So why did I give it a 6/10 anyway? I loved that last twist at the very end. Welcome to Hell, murderer. They won't let him die, and if things work out well for him, it will become apparent to even that fool that he kept the wondrous future (including constantly improving medical technology) from the woman he loved by murdering her.

Vapid Human Wakes in Vapid Utopia

[LouieInLove · 3/10 · 6 May 2017]

This is a love story between two vapid people, one of whom has a terminal illness. However, the dying individual (post death) jumps in a freezer only to be reanimated in the not too distant future into a vapid utopia.

There is nothing to latch on to in this film. It pulls very little empathy from the viewer. There is a coldness/soulless quality to the characters & the world in which they are set. A potentially interesting story is basically let down by a lack of humanity. There is no beauty or rhythm to the storytelling. It is simply pretensions stylised shite; which is a genuine shame.

Hay! I'm off to meet my sex friends - so I have to stop writing this review. Me & my sex friends will hang out & maybe have some sex. This is what me & my friends do. We don't put labels on things. We don't try & own one another, we just share our bodily fluid devoid of any emotional connection. I pity those of you who shackle yourselves to romance.

Booooo!

Good movie, but...

[Dave_douell · 7/10 · 22 December 2018]

This guy really pissed me off! He had everything and never appreciated anything. He got everything he wanted regardless of anyone else's feelings. He didn't care about anyone but himself. And how dare he destroy Naomi's cryo chamber! I think the ending was funny in a way even though he didn't deserve another chance. Otherwise this was a good movie.

Slow start. Slow end.

[dnljordaan · 3/10 · 17 July 2018]

Although the idea behind the film is interesting, the acting, set and overall production are not going to win any Oscars. All in all; a good one to watch whilst browsing Instagram - you will not really miss anything.

This film is the very definition of sadness

[andreipeiciu · 7/10 · 25 October 2018]

My God, I almost wanted to kill myself at the end of the film, it somehow takes you away the will to live... This film is the very definition of sadness, when there is no hope anymore, there is just a bottomless sadness. And i think that we have something to learn from sadness, form life, but in this film no one of the characters learns nothing... and it makes it even more sad. I don't know, maybe i would not watch it again sincerely. I don't think it brings the right message about life to the audience. I voted it "7" because maybe i missed something, and yet... I don't recommend it.

I did not enjoy this

[sherripadgitt-55536 · 3/10 · 26 June 2017]

The movie is a bore. I kept waiting for it to get better, but to my un-surprise, it never did. To me this was an all-around failure, but I did have to give the film credit in a few places. The acting was good, but the story-line was bad. This gives a peek into what it may be like if someone were revived after being cyro-frozen.

I didn't like this version of what it might be like, mainly because it is without a lot of emotion. It doesn't allow the audience to feel emotional about any of the characters. There was 0 character growth. The memories from the main character were repeated over and over. Concepts like happiness or humor were deplete from this movie. It was all basically null of any and all feeling....maybe a tad of sadness, but no not really that either. I do not recommend this movie, and I do believe being revived in a future day and age after being frozen could offer humanity better options. This movie was a miserable outlook on cyronics and revival.

The Perils of Reanimation

[alisonc-1 · 9/10 · 27 July 2016]

Marc Jarvis (Tom Hughes) is a rich, young, successful artist who is suddenly told that he has cancer and has at most a year to live. He decides to freeze his body in the hopes that future medicine can cure him, but his girlfriend Naomi (Oona Chaplin) is horrified that he means to take his own life in order to ensure that his body is in as good condition as possible when he dies. Nevertheless, he does just that… only to wake up some 60 years later; Dr. West (Barry Ward) and his team have learned, through trial and error, how to reanimate frozen humans. Marc is their first complete success, and with the help of nurse/assistant Elizabeth (Charlotte Le Bon), Marc struggles to find meaning in his new existence, while his long-ago past still pulls at his heart…. I'm not sure why this is a Spanish film as it's in English and features British actors; but, no matter. It's a really thoughtful science fiction film that addresses not only technological advances but the moral and ethical problems associated with them. I very much liked Tom Hughes (who looks a bit like Cillian Murphy) because he was able to take his character through a very complex maze of emotional realities; then again, everybody in this film is good. Interestingly, the problem of how to portray the future was solved by simply having Marc remain in the facility in which he was reborn, because his body was not strong enough (yet) to adapt to outside conditions; a neat explanation that means the viewer isn't taken out of the picture by seeing a future world that looks cheesy or contrived or otherwise unnatural. Well done, filmmakers!

Flashbacks are boring & annoying, everything else is interesting & worth watching.

[luzarius-04701 · 7/10 · 28 December 2017]

The ideas in the movie are thought provoking, intriguing and interesting. They ask a lot of good questions and the movie makes you think. I ended up disliking the main character towards the end, but I was surprised and satisfied right at the end of the movie for a reason I won't mention to avoid spoilers.

The flashbacks are boring and annoying. I skipped all the back story and still enjoyed the logical & mind stirring sci-fi aspects. If you find the flashbacks and back story boring, just skip ahead, you won't miss anything important.

Boredom at its peak

[ih55 · 1/10 · 14 April 2019]

Excellent film if you want to die of boredom. As the film drags on, the number of yawns per minute gradually induce you into a coma.

Trying to keep up with technology

[ravenlord-57259 · 7/10 · 15 January 2021]

This movie is basically a very thoughtful and provocative essay on the dangers of technology outpacing societal mores and the legal system. There are no real antagonist, except perhaps the protagonist himself. I was immersed and captivated by the story despite the slow pacing, The only downside for the film is the message that it delivers -- that the future is for our children and grandchildren, and not for us.I am not saying that this message is wrong, but only that it is a depressing one to contemplate if it is right.