Surrogates is a super slick serving of sci-fi nonsense starring Bruce Willis and directed by Jonathan Mostow that tries to sell us on the idea that there ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, baby, when it comes to humanity yet ends up being about as emotionally warm as an iceberg.
Based on a graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, it’s set in a future in which most humans live in isolation and interact via human-looking robots. Willis’ cop is forced to leave his home and investigate in person when someone starts killing actual people through their surrogates.
The film certainly looks good, from the futuristic sets and cool effects–like a one-armed Willis chasing said killer (Mostow regular Jack Noseworthy)–to the lighting and editing, not to mention all the fashion model types strutting around as the surrogates. They’re easy on the eyes, unlike the sight of the follically-challenged Willis wearing a blond wig when playing his own doppelganger.
Mostow (Breakdown, Terminator 3) is an ace action helmer in my book and doesn’t disappoint me here on that score. He moves things along at a decent clip and fashions some exciting sequences, the best being Willis’ car chase of a surrogate as it bounces off walls, hurls a parking meter through the windshield, jumps up and over oncoming cars and leaps onto the top of a moving bus.
I also liked the idea of the surrogates themselves. There are your basic walk-and-talk models, but you can upgrade if you want. There are booths on every corner where they can recharge. The military uses them in battle instead of real soldiers. If you don’t like how a discussion is going, just disconnect. Encounter an actual person? Go ahead and call them a “meat bag.”
But for a movie about the evils of technology, it lacks any real weight, the half-hearted I-want-you-not-a-robot conversations between Willis and his wife (Rosamund Pike) notwithstanding. And it’s a little difficult to take seriously the preaching of a so-called prophet when he’s played by a dreadlocked Ving Rhames.
There are definitely more entertaining movies that deal with similar issues. Westworld, Total Recall, Gamer and Avatar, to name a few. Better ones, too, like Gattaca, and awful ones, like The 6th Day. There’s also the intriguing I, Robot, which, like this film, features James Cromwell as a creator of robots. I guess the guy has a thing for stories about machines that corrupt humankind. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]
Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Rated PG-13
DVD Release Date: 1/26/10