“Surrogates” is a sci-fi overload with a futuristic society turned robotic and high-tech, but a little predictable.

A mish-mash of previous sci-fi fantasy movies, with robots, science, and technology… ”Surrogates” confronts issues of technology replacing human interaction with the world.   Its a little heavy-handed and obvious, but also entertaining.
 

(My spoiler-free review)

Set in the near future, humans plug into robots of their likeness – the result is lower crime crates, no racism, fewer diseases, etc. but there’s a growing resistance to the technology that have made things even more perilous than before.

The filmmakers play their message (whether intended or coincidental) with a very slick package of effects and technology while drawing a very clear line between the surrogates and the real people they represent.   The surrogates are very healthy looking and vibrant, basically perfect, albeit plastic while the real people they resemble are older and sickly and flawed.

Bruce Willis is FBI Agent Tom Greer, who is investigating the first homicide in years, and as he investigates outside of his surrogate, he falls further down the proverbial the rabbit hole of this fantasy.

James Cromwell is good as the creator of the surrogates (a similiar role to his character in “I, Robot” (2004), Rosamund Pike brings some believability to the role of Greer’s wife, and Ving Rhames is good as the leader of the resistance, but while the other actors do well to appear robotic – the roles lack any true heart that makes you care about what happens to them… and caring about all the characters becomes critical to the climatic point of the movie… which is undercut by this lack of connection and caring with the audience.

The movie accomplishes a lot in a short period of time… a futuristic society that is different from ours in many ways, plus a resistance group that opposes this futuristic way of life.      But it also creates more questions in the end: if there are non-surrogate robots (like we see at FBI) to do mediocre jobs and everyone is perfect, why are people still doing those jobs and if the real people never come out of their rooms into the real world… how are their homes so spotless?

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Willis is good, the effects and makeup are strong and believable, but the disconnect takes away from the climax… I give it 6.5 out of 10 … is is a fresh take on crime drama and its good sci-fi futuristic action, but certainly not comparable to the similiar recent movie ”I, Robot” where the robots are humanized and the audience cares what happens to them… “Surrogates” misses… and it matters most at the movie’s climax.

“Surrogates”

(2009) (rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, language, sexuality and a drug-related scene)
(1 hr, 44 min)

Starring: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Boris Kodjoe, James Francis Ginty, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames, Jack Noseworthy, Devin Ratray, Michael Cudlitz

Director: Jonathan Mostow   “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” (2003), “U-571″ (2000), “Breakdown” (1997)

Genre: Sci-Fi Action/Thriller/Crime

The Plot: Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop (Willis) is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates.

So what did you think?  Please post a comment!

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“Surrogates” poster courtesy Touchstone Pictures

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