Surrogates is a movie that takes place in a not-too-distant future where all interaction between humans is done through surrogate robots. From the safety of your home, you control a body that sees, hears, smells, tastes, and feels for you, allowing you to do all of the things you wanted to do in life without the fear of being injured or killed. You can have a surrogate that is a different sex, race, age, or even something that's brand new and unique. It's painted as an utopian future.

And, of course, in any utopian future, there is the faction of people who are unhappy with it. In this instance, the people who refuse to use machines to interact with other humans but who relish the human experience. And then there's the murder of a surrogate's user through the destruction of a surrogate, something that's supposed to be impossible. And Bruce Willis plays the FBI agent who investigates it all.

The movie had some really interesting concepts and in the hands of a better writer, or even as a movie longer than 88 minutes (or maybe a television series), it could have touched on some of the more fascinating aspects of this society. Have restaurants and hair salons gone out of business? Have surrogates gone to different planets and under the ocean? Could you make surrogates that are giant sized or microscopic? How do people keep from having their muscles atrophy?

Unfortunately, this movie just skimmed along and barely broke the surface of the ocean of possibilities. It was rather predictable, especially if you saw the previews that ruined the entire ending, and while everyone did a decent job acting, it was too heavy handed while being simultaneously shallow to really work well.

I'd give it a C.

29 Responses to “My Review of Surrogates”