Review: Surrogates

Surrogates has an intriguing concept but ultimately doesn’t deliver on it. Bruce Willis plays FBI agent Greer who is investigating the deaths of two people who at the time were plugged into their surrogates. The surrogates provide the opportunity for people to live out their lives through the use of a robotic avatar. Never having to leave the house has benefits such as crime being practically being eliminated. That is the case until it is discovered that these two people had been killed with a weapon that overloaded the surrogates and subsequently killed their hosts and billions of people could be at risk.

Not everyone is pleased with the way the world has changed due to the use of surrogates. Pockets of resistance reside in camps in every city where surrogates are not allowed in. These residents are hoping for a way to end the surrogate program and bring people back out into the real world. That weapon with the capability of killing the hosts who are connected in is central to the plan to make that happen.

Willis is generally enjoyable in his roles but doesn’t really seem to fit here. There really isn’t much difference in how Greer acts and his surrogate acts. Actually everyone in the movie, surrogates or not, comes across as robotic. I suppose that could be attributed to the sense of humanity that has been lost with the move to surrogates however it just comes across as uninspired acting and dialogue.

There is also a side conflict brewing between Greer and his wife. As a couple they have lost the human interaction they used to have and are dealing with the loss of a child years before. Their relationship never really builds up to something that I cared about and I felt no emotional attachment to them or their difficulty grieving and coming to terms with the past and what they had become.

Surrogates is being sold as an action thriller. However the action was pretty generic and there was little to no suspense throughout. Having no real attachment to any of the characters made it difficult to feel like anything was actually on the line. What would be described as the twist really didn’t have much impact at all. The “secret behind the surrogates” is not nearly as interesting as the ads would make you believe.

The ending presents a moral dilemma which did have me considering what I would’ve done if put into that situation. The puzzling part about it is why the final solution wasn’t the one that the main person trying to take down the surrogates would’ve gone for in the first place.

Surrogates is a high concept movie that looks great in the ads but the result is not a compelling full length film. A sign of the lack of original ideas is in the running time that comes out to only 88 minutes. If you’re in the mood for a good sci-fi action movie make sure to see District 9 instead and wait to see Surrogates on DVD in the comfort of your own home.

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