Movie Review: Surrogates

Surrogates is the latest film to feature Bruce Willis. It's an action sci-fi combination that plays on familiar themes, and slips in a bit ot philosophy/politics when you aren't looking.

Starting with the plot, it does have one. It's not hard to follow and it is set-up well. The progrssion of AI and robotics eventually leads to the creation of human looking Waldo's. Initally meant to be an aid to the disabled, it is adapted by the millitary and then consumer versions. The device becomes wildly popular and soon the entire world is using this. The ultimate couch potatoe luxury item for everyone.

Well almost everyone. There are humans that are against the idea. And they set-up conclaves within the U.S. and presumably the world, where no machinery exists. Essentially they are ludites.

All of this you probably got from the trailers for the movie. But the plot quickly moves around. We start with a murder, actually 2 of them, via the surrogate machines. Then we shift to a conspiracy to another one, and then to a love story, and finally to a moral dilema.

All of the themes work on a level, to an extent. But they all fail as well. The biggest problem is that you don't feel like any side in this film is really all that compelling.

Ving Rhames character is a support role, but not very essential to the movie, though he is a key to the plot. In fact everyone except Willis is basically a weak minor support. Which would be fine, but the acting of Willis seems as weary and devoid of emotion as the surrogate robots the fill this movie world.

The special effects of the film are decent but not spectacular. The same can be said of the CGI scenes. Overall you geta bland feeling in looking at the various city scenes. Which is likely what was intended, as this is the effect of the surrogates.

Are there plot holes in the film? Many, and the pace of the film allows you time to wonder about them. Is there lots of gunplay and explosions? Not as much as you would thing. Though there are more than a few scenes of large groups of people being destroyed, except these are all robots so everyone is safe.

The big question of the film is, what makes us human? Is technology a tool for our benefit or a means of destroying us while we still live?

The end of the film is like the rest of it, a bit contrived and far too neat to be believable.

There is a bit of humor though in seeing what most of the characters really look like without their robotic counterparts.Not enough to make the film worthwhile but interesting for a few seconds. Similar to what we learn of the guy controlling the wife in the boring Gamer film.

There's not much to say about Surrogates as there isn't that much to speak about. The film is not compelling, you don't really feel engaged at any point. Overall it was a decent film but not worth a movie ticket. I'd propbaly buy the DVD to keep up with my Bruce Willis collection of films, but that would be the only reason.

Movie Preview: Surrogates

What if you were to take the themes of WestWorld and The Matrix, add in a waldo (not the character) and some I Robot (the book not the substandard movie), what might you get? Well these are likely sources that helped to create Surrogates.

The concept is hardly new. We have a world of luxury, or so it seems. A future where people are even more removed from interacting with each other than we do know with the internet. Almost a world like Logan’s Run, separated from everything around us – effectively in a trap of our own creation.

Suddenly this “ideal” world has a serious problem. Our hero, Bruce Willis, is an unwilling piece in a series of events that move towards a revelation that will affect everyone. And the punch-line will be either anti-climactic or dead-on.



Considering the normally successful choices of films Bruce Willis has been in over his career (once he got past his first film) this film starts on a good foot. The addition of Ving Rhames is another plus to the film. Robots and a decent amount of action can’t hurt either.

But this film will be more plot heavy than most sci-fi these days. I expect that the first 15 minutes will be critical for the film, much like in Blade Runner. So keeping the plot holes small will be very critical to it being a good movie.

The look of the film is pretty consistent with most futuristic films these days. Nothing special there. And the special effects look to be lighter than most on the CGI front, which I find to be a bonus.

I can’t say that I want to run out and see this film. But I’m not dreading the fact that I will review this either. Thus this is a middle of the field movie. Likely to be worth the time of fans of sci-fi and Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames (unless Rhames has a mostly cameo role – which seems likely). But it’s all down to the writing on this one.