Surrogates

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Detective, Thriller

Director: Jonathan Mostow

Actors: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Boris Kodjoe, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames

Runtime: 88 min

Budget: $80 million

Year: 2009

In 2017 people live their lives in near-total isolation, rarely leaving the safety and comfort of their homes as they have robotic surrogates – sexy, physically perfect mechanical representations of themselves. Thus now humans are safe all the time and damage done to surrogate is not felt by its owner. It's an ideal world where crime, pain, fear and consequences don't exist. When the first murder in years jolts this utopia, FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) discovers a vast conspiracy behind the surrogate phenomenon and must abandon his own surrogate, risking his life to unravel the mystery.

According to filmmakers "Surrogates" is a science fiction detective action thriller. It is surprising but the movie has three weak points: action, sci-fi and thriller. It lacks tension to be a thriller, one or two chase scenes can't make a good action of it. If you have high expectations of a Bruce Willis movie you definitely will be dissapointed. Speaking of scince-fiction, there are some visual effects that look like they've been rendered 15 years ago. The surrealism of the movie is that most of what you see seem like all it exists in the present world; there are no flying cars or rockets everywhere; its just the simple existence and presence of mannequin-like robots everywhere.

The storyline of this movie falls somewhere around the categories where movies like "Blade Runner", "Minority Report", and "I-Robot" belong. A movie that talks about how future technologies can affect human life, and provides some philosophical point of view that is worth pondering on. into and reaching the boundaries that it becomes an abomination of nature. The movie tends to be thought provoking, the idea of progressing technology that becomes an abomination of nature could have been worth an entire evening of discussion if some moments had been delivered more effectively or given a proper execution or interpretation.

Anyway, the storyline of the movie is a high point. The entire benefit of using a surrogate is to never be hurt or killed, and also to look the way you want people to see you. It is obvious an analogy with the internet, where human interaction has increasingly become facilitated by machines. Just like with the internet, surrogate users can be anyone they desire; their robot's appearance and even sex is designed to their specifications. It is really weird to see everybody young and with perfect bodies. A 'Young Bruce' via the miracle of modern CGI effects also looks strange and unnaturally. Definitely you'll have a feeling of a fake world we live on. Especially when Bruce Willis' character Tom Greer steps out of his home for the first time in years, and begins to grapple with how surrogates alienate humans from one another.

It is possible to call the film a drama as you undoubtedly will be impressed by the emotional scenes with Bruce Willis and his wife. He handled the feelings well. "Surrogates" is yet another example of just how good an actor Bruce Willis is. Except for Willis and Rosamund Pike, who plays Greer's wife Maggie, the acting is fairly vapid.

"Surrogates" makes its message far too direct. "It is wrong to live life through a Surrogate!". There are no ambiguities about the lifestyle presented in the film. No 'what ifs?'. Surprisingly, for all the borrowing and lack of any true originality, "Surrogates" is watchable.