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.
Enjoy this post? Try these:My review of Avatar (Spoiler Free)
My review of Bruno (spoiler-free)
My review of The Time Traveler’s Wife (Spoiler Free)
I’m intrigued by the idea of a TV show with this premise. Or even a series of short stories.
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@Ren, I think it could be really cool. Too bad it will never happen, or, if it does and it’s good, it will get canceled after a week.
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thank you for the review, so tell me, is it worth seeing at all?
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@sudobeer, on DVD or HBO, yeah.
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Sensitive sensei suggests Surrogates “so so”.
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@avatgardener, you used “sensitive” just because I don’t have a beard right now, didn’t you?
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@Avitable, no not really. More because you do seem to be in touch with your feminine side.
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@avatgardener, this is true. *sob*
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Twitter: floatingprncess
says:
Hubs wants to see this. I wanted to see Fame this weekend and the reviews for that weren’t any better. I think we’ll both be waiting for DVD!
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@floating princess, you could go see separate movies – win win!
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Huh.
Sounds like I’d be very annoyed and filled with questions at the end.
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@Sybil Law, well, there weren’t many questions at the end, and it was kind of cool, but not great. Not worth seeing in theaters.
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That’s too bad… the premise looked promising.
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@cat, yeah, it definitely did.
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Twitter: s_csr
says:
Reviews like this make me glad that I’ve never even heard of this. Sounds like even the previews on tv would make me lose brain cells. And I can’t afford for that to happen.
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@Sheila (Charm School Reject), this is true. I think you’ve only got two or three left!
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so basically, bruce willis in diehard…with ROBOTS.
charming. can’t wait.
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@CP, kind of, yeah.
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Twitter: whall
says:
I don’t read your review posts. But for some reason I still comment on them.
Weird
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@whall, I feel like I should throw a little party every time you comment now!
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Twitter: whall
on September 27th, 2009 at Sunday, September 27, 2009 @ 9:54 am
@Avitable, heh, like you don’t.
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Sounds a little like demolition man, no?
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@Clayton, in a basic way, yeah, but the actual premise is closer to Minority Report.
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Twitter: poppycede
says:
The movie reminds me of a movie I saw when I was a kid, where robots replace actors and people end up dying. The premise is totally different, actually, it’s just the idea of the robots that is the same. That movie was WAY better than I’m sure this one is. It’s called Looker, written and directed by Michael Crichton, and stars Susan Dey: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/
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@Poppy, wow – I’ve never even heard of it! Don’t send it to me, yet, though – I still have Tootsie to watch!
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Twitter: shellimil
says:
Good. I hadn’t planned on seeing it anyway.
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@Shelli, well, fine then!
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Hollywood doesn’t seem capable of making thoughtful science fiction these days. Even the most intriguing of premises gets reduced to an excuse to string action sequences together. I didn’t see this movie, but your description sounded like exactly what I feared it would be.
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@Grant, have you seen District 9? You might like that one.
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