Film Friday - The Surrogates Review

Title: The Surrogates

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller
Directed by: Jonathan Mostow
Written by:
Michael Ferris,
John Brancato
Starring:
Bruce Willis,
Radha Mitchell,
Rosamund Pike,
Ving Rhames
Release Date: September 25, 2009

Rating 2.5/5

The Surrogates is an idea that had potential, but was left in the lurch when executed. The basic story is that humans, through fear of personal harm or death stay inside while their robotic counterparts-surrogates-take their place in the real world driving, at their job, parties, etc, etc. However, a sect of the population are against the concept of surrogates and a cyber-terrorist develops a program that fries a surrogate on site, with the side-effect of killing the person operating it via. computer programs.

Bruce Willis, a cop, investigates the string of murders that leads him throughout the city through high society and the camps where the anti-surrogate humans live. However, his character's surrogate is destroyed and he must face the world merely human after years of living as a surrogate. Bruce Willis must find the terrorist and stop him from frying the entire mainframe-and all the humans wired into it.

While trying not to sound pretentious, the movie just felt conventional. I really didn't see anything new as far as tropes and plot points go: corrupt upper class, corrupt rebels, main character with one foot in two worlds and having to decide which to stay in, conglomerate majority, scattered minority, etc. That, and the exploring of this new world doesn't show anything that hasn't been seen before (beauty and body are easily sculpted, you can do all sorts of crazy things with your robot body) and nothing more than that is really explored. However, I feel that the makeup/CGI for the surrogates in the film is very successful in that they look human, but are not. The film succeeds in placing the surrogates in the uncanny valley for the viewer.

Also, it feels like many of the characters were phoned in. It seems that Bruce Willis was there for the paycheck. Yes, I understand they are robots and 'expression' should be dulled and all that, but all the acting seemed tired. I would say that the main 'point' the movie was trying to get across (that living vicariously through electronics and the Internet destroys what is human inside of us) is represented in the rocky marriage between Willis's character and his wife. However, this isn't really explored enough I feel to make the audience care about the characters or the negative effected the surrogates have on their marraige and society at large.

That, I feel, is the main failing of the movie. It fails on every account to make me care for the main characters, those in charge, the rebels, and the man who created the system. The only person I felt sorry for was the I.T. guy who got held hostage. And for a tertiary character to be the only one the viewer cares whether they live or die is a bad indicator that the relationship between the characters is flawed to begin with, or the actors fail to accurately portray the characters. I still think its on netflix instant streaming so, if you are bored and want to burn a couple hours watching a dystopic film, The Surrogates has its moments amidst the blandness, but those are few and far between. It's like a bowl of lucky charms with only a couple marshmallows.