Surrogates

2009 "How do you save humanity when the only thing that's real is you?"
6.3| 1h29m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 25 September 2009 Released
Producted By: Touchstone Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://chooseyoursurrogate.com/
Synopsis

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

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bowmanblue Yeah, I know, Bruce Willis may be a bit past his sell-by date. He's hardly the box office draw he once was. And, yes, he does tend to exhibit a noticeable sneer/smirk throughout most of his most recent roles, but give him a chance here. He's not so bad.Surrogates set in the future when we all have robots to carry out our menial chores – all of apart from wise-cracking cop, played by Will Smith, who is hell-bent on proving that our robot 'protectors' are not what they seem. Oh, wait, that's not the plot for Surrogates at all – that's the plot for 'I Robot.' Never mind – just take out the word 'robots' and replace it with, er, 'surrogates' (which are basically robots) and you have the storyline.If you haven't seen I Robot, Surrogates may be quite original, but I couldn't believe how similar the two were. But I still enjoyed it. I put in my review title that it was a competent LITTLE sci-fi number. That's largely because it's quite short for a film – coming in well below the average hour and a half. And, because of this, it's over pretty quickly, almost like a TV episode of some sci-fi show.It has action, conspiracy, reasonably special effects and Bruce Willis isn't that annoying. In fact, his – how should I put this – 'mature' action hero status actually works here. The human race all have (surrogate) robots shaped like them who go out into the world under their human master's control. Naturally, everyone's surrogate is young and gorgeous while their human owner's body gets older and flabby from the comfort of their home. It's quite amusing when Bruce's beautiful bot gets beaten up and the 'real' human Bruce has to go out onto the streets with his bald head and wrinkles for all to see.All of this means that if you're a fan of the sci-fi genre you should get something out of this film. It's one of those films that you like more if you haven't had to pay for. If you can borrow it off a mate or find it as part of your online TV package, give it a go. It will definitely kill just over an hour of your time, but you probably wouldn't have wanted to pay full price in the cinema to see it. Oh, and it's also advisable not to watch I Robot before you see this (it's definitely superior – sorry, Bruce).
Scott LeBrun In this world of the future, technology now allows people to experience life vicariously through the activities of their "surrogates", which are ultra sophisticated robotic creations. Trouble brews when the son of the programs' creator is killed. Bruce Willis plays Greer, an FBI agent forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to solve the conspiracy.An adaptation of the graphic novel by Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele, "Surrogates" is slick genre entertainment, a cut above many films of this type due to some genuinely provocative content. It certainly may make each viewer ponder the idea of having what is essentially a robot live their life for them. A parallel between the obsessions of this films' characters and real life addictions to technology can certainly be seen. In the end, the need to stress, and reclaim, our humanity is made clear. The action scenes are capably handled, but there are not that many of them. This is one of those instances where the action is serving the story and not vice versa. The visual and makeup effects are generally well done.Credit is due to these filmmakers - led by director Jonathan Mostow - for hitting the ground running and keeping their pace rather lively. Refreshingly, "Surrogates" runs a trim hour and a half, so there's no uninteresting filler to have to sit through. There is some poignancy to the material, as Greer desperately tries to reconnect with his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike), who fixates on her surrogate, partly as a way of dealing with grief.Willis gives a sensitive, appealing performance in the lead, although it may be distracting seeing that wig on the head of his surrogate. Lovely ladies Radha Mitchell and Pike are fine, as is Boris Kodjoe as the FBI supervisor. James Cromwell and Ving Rhames are kind of wasted in their respective supporting roles, but it's fun to see Jack Noseworthy (a semi regular in Mostows' filmography), Devin Ratray (Buzz from "Home Alone"), and Michael Cudlitz (Abraham on 'The Walking Dead') turn up.Reasonably stimulating and diverting for 89 robust minutes.Seven out of 10.
TheLittleSongbird Surrogates' great and very interesting concept and the amount of talent on display were its selling points, and Surrogates on the whole delivers, its good parts being pretty great actually. Of course it's less than perfect, but none of the not-so-good things come over disastrously, more unevenly if anything else.The film is a very good-looking one, the sci-fi/technological look very handsomely rendered and imaginatively surreal. It's also beautifully shot and crisply edited and there are some good special effects on display. That is not to say that all the special effects are great, some of them looking rather cheap and being more at home in a film from the late 80s-early 90s. The music has its bombastic, pulsating moments as well as a hauntingly understated quality. Some of the script is interesting and probes a lot of thought, but other parts are on the weak side, with some very clichéd dialogue and it doesn't develop its characters as well as it could have done. James Cromwell's character especially is very underutilised and shallow.From a story point of view, most of it works. There are some good ideas and subplots that are in a good amount if not all cases explored intelligently and intriguingly but what was really remarkable was the subplot with Greer and Maggie's failing relationship, which brought an emotional core that really resonated with me. It's not completely successful, some of it does plod, especially the conspiracy elements, and much more could have been done with the ending, which felt underdeveloped and confused. The action's a mixed bag, some are energetic and exciting but others are pedestrian and on the silly side. Surrogates is directed efficiently and the cast do a great job, though James Cromwell has been much better and more engaged in other roles.Particularly impressive were a charismatically world-weary and no-nonsense Bruce Willis and Rosamund Pike's excellent, sympathetic performance ranks among her better roles. Radha Mitchell is also touching. Overall, has some uneven moments but a most intriguing film that delivers on most levels. 7/10 Bethany Cox
darth-tobe Science fiction is often used to illustrate current problems. So, this movie seems to be a modern retelling of the story of the land of Cockaigne. And like the medieval stories it heavy-handedly drives home the lesson about the Land of Plenty being a blessing and a curse.To start with, I liked the visual style, how the Surrogates look all polished and seem to correspond to how people would like to see themselves. I also liked the idea of anonymity, that - like Internet avatars - a Surrogate could be anyone and gives you no clue as to who is operating it. Interesting as these premises may be they quickly fell apart. There are so many things that do not seem to make sense, even within the plot's own world.Without giving away too much here are a few points that may also occur to you during the early parts of the film.If people depend on their Surrogates for everything, even household tasks, and hardly go out anymore why do their muscles not completely atrophy? Haven't they watched Wall-E?How could this advanced robotic technology and neural interfaces (Surrogates are thought controlled) have been developed within 14 years (as stated in the opening) and have become so cheap that the average Joe or Jane can afford them? And if so why is this technology not used for controlling other machines?Logically, for every new development there are those that oppose it. I thought they would be like everyone else just that they reject Surrogate technology. Why would they look like survivors of an apocalypse, live in abandoned building compounds, seemingly also reject all other technology and also be armed to the teeth and ready to go to war?And why does the main character have to be coping with some family tragedy only to illustrate that using Surrogates is bad for you?This was the list after about 20% of the film. Sadly it did not get any better. The science fiction setting has not been thought through. The murder mystery tries half-heartedly to be complex but offers few surprises and fails to deliver as little as a plausible motive. Characters just find clues because they do. In the end there is not even enough sci-fi action to support the film since Bruce Willis is not the youngest anymore and also plays a character who is very vulnerable among all the robots. Wait, does that not sound familiar? Actually, quite a number of elements seem to have been lifted straight from I, Robot. The inventor of the robots is even played by the same actor. Maybe that is it: go watch I, Robot instead.