SURROGATES MOVIE REVIEW - The Movie Messenger

Surrogates is a Sci-Fi thriller starring Bruce Willis. The world has been free of crime and corruption due to the invention of Surrogates, more attractive looking robot versions of their human controllers, who manipulate their every action and movement from the comfort their homes. It’s like being whoever you want to be, without the risk.

That is, until the day a surrogate is attacked and destroyed, which also kills its human operator. FBI Agent Greer, played by Bruce Willis, and FBI Agent Peters (Radha Mitchell) are assigned to the case to figure out how this all occurred when nothing like it has ever happened before.

In the background of all of this, a portion of humanity is against using Surrogates, and there are even designated areas on Earth where Surrogate use is not allowed. The Prophet, played by Ving Rhames, is a cult leader who is leading a revolution to bring down Surrogates and save humanity. He blames the spiraling downfall of humanity on Dr. Lionel Canter (James Cromwell), the inventor of Surrogates.

Surrogates has a really great premise and is set-up with great style in its opening sequence, but there is just something about it that seems a little off. For example, mostly everyone walking around in everyday life is a Surrogate, so they’re robots. Everyone on screen look like mannequins, and sadly, act like mannequins to boot. You would think something as advanced as Surrogates would be able to at least act a little more human, but I couldn’t tell if the acting was bad because they were Surrogates, or if the acting was bad because the humans that were portraying the Surrogates just couldn’t act. Don’t get me wrong, Bruce Willis does well here with the script that he’s given, but all they did well for good ol’ Bruce was make him look 20 years younger with a pound of make-up and a little boys haircut, well, that’s what his Surrogate looks like.

The biggest thing that comes to mind is that this story had so much potential to be something great, but each scene is flat, lacks emotional punch, and doesn’t connect with the audience. There’s a storyline with Agent Greer and his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike), who he hasn’t really seen in years because she’s been using a Surrogate since their child was killed in a car accident. The Surrogate is the perfect Stepford Wife, but Greer wants so badly to be close with his real wife, a part of his humanity that he feels he lost. Because Bruce has to act with people playing robots, there is some sort of emotional connection lost in these scene and they don’t work well enough for the audience to really care.

Other than these expositional scenes, there are some great action sequences, especially a chase after a Surrogate through the streets, and this only reminded me that Bruce Willis can still be an action star after all these years and he hasn’t lost his edge. The action scenes are the most fun part of the movie, and there are also some fun twists and turns along the way too.

Unfortunately, it all doesn’t’ add up to be a good movie. The script isn’t strong to hold everything together, and at 88 minutes, this movie had potential to be a little longer. I’m not saying it isn’t good because its short, I’m saying things are a bit rushed, and sloppily thrown together to make sense. It’s mostly style over substance, with even the style a little bit backward with cartoony CGI shots in the worst spots (does driving a car or moving down an escalator really require CGI? And if so, does it have to look like CGI?) I only mention these because they are really that distracting to the point when you are trying to pay attention to the story, all you will be thinking is “wow that looks fake.”

Surrogates is not bad, but it’s not good either. It’s another movie that tries to sell us that overuse of technology may be the downfall of humanity. That’s fine, but if the movie wants to make that argument, I’d like to point out the amount of CGI poorly used in Surrogates may add to the downfall of cinema. CGI is a technology, isn’t it?

-Anthony J. Gomez, The Movie Messenger