Review: Surrogates
“How do you save humanity when the only thing that’s real is you?”
Bruce Willis’ latest theatrical adventure takes us into a future where people no longer leave the comfort of their homes. They interact with the world via the use of ‘Surrogates’, robotic machines made exactly to resemble any (flawless) human being. You can be as ugly as George Bush, but walk around as Angelina Jolie and no one will ever see your real face. The story starts off with the murder two surrogates and their operators, something which is not suppose to be possible. A surrogate can fall from great heights, suffer mortal injuries and be blown to bits without inflicting as much as a scratch to the operator. Supercop John McClane Tom Greer is assigned to investigate and soon finds himself having to leave his home for the first time in years due to his surrogate being destroyed at a point during the investigation.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw the trailer for this movie was the 2004 Will Smith movie I, Robot. I’m sure many people who’ve seen it would’ve thought the same. While it certainly wasn’t the best movie ever, I very much enjoyed I, Robot mostly due to the mystery element. While similar in many aspects, Surrogates is not a rip-off of I, Robot. It does however feel like a watered down version of I, Robot with its much less interesting plot and generally slower pace. I’ll be honest and say I almost fell asleep during the movie, but that may be partially due to my lack of sleep the night before. The plot is rather predictable and the ending is very unsatisfying. Ok what if I told you the last scene of the movie before the credits is actually in the trailer? The action isn’t all that exciting. Most of it seems be taken out of a Terminator movie, but then again it’s the same director. I know I seem to be really bashing Surrogates by comparing it to I, Robot, but their similarities make it valid for comparison.
Despite all that, Surrogates is still a very watchable movie. It’s definitely something I did not want to miss, but not something I would watch again anytime soon. I think the main thing Surrogates is missing from being a great movie is simply that vibe and atmosphere I, Robot had. One thing I found interesting about this movie was how it seemed to be a metaphor of how we are increasing our use of technology to interact with other human beings. Where was Facebook 5 years ago and where is it now? Is Surrogates basically not a ”life’ MMO?
Verdict: Don’t listen to my I, Robot biased review and go check it out; especially if you haven’t actually seen I, Robot. I’ll leave you with this very awesome song from the soundtrack by Breaking Benjamin
Rating: 3/5
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