Surrogates Review

Published by Jeff Leins on: September 29th, 2009

In a Hollywood landscape struggling to find the next big action star, Disney offers the suggestion of simply cloning Bruce Willis.  In Surrogates, a younger-looking, wig-wearing hero bounds after a suspect with such dexterity you almost believe Bruce is back.  Almost.

Instead this super cop is one of millions of surrogates in a virtual reality where 98% of the world’s population explores the world vicariously through robotic versions of themselves.  Unblemished, plastic avatars carry out daily duties while their atrophying owners control them from the safety of their own homes.  With humans tucked away the cyborg news celebrates a drastic reduction in crime.

Willis plays Tom Greer, the FBI agent investigating the only murder in recent memory.  The victim is curiously the son of the inventor of surrogates, Dr. Lionel Canter portrayed in a passionate performance from James Cromwell.  Offering puzzled looks and nothing else is Greer’s FBI partner Agent Peters (Radha Mitchell).  The duo soon discovers the murder was caused by an electronic pulse weapon (that resembles a dustbuster), which fries the brains of the surrogate and controller alike.

The trail leads to The Prophet (a dreadlocked Ving Rhames), an outspoken, quasi-religious rebel presiding over a cultist colony of people refusing to give in to the tenants of surrogacy.  The Boston locals call them “The Dreads,” a nickname as crudely conceived as his makeshift civilization.  After losing his surrogate and facing dangers of mind explosion (unlike the audience), Greer decides to put his real body on the line in the harsh synthetic world.

Director Jonathan Mastow keeps the 88-minute movie moving briskly along, though sometimes to the detriment of what might have been a thought-provoking topic, like illegal upgrades or surrogate armies.  The action sequences are fun but familiar, and the “human” interaction is clunky, as if rusty models were attempting to muster stiff emotions.

However, you’ll need the enhanced surrogate abilities to avoid plot holes and leaps in logic.  Such as why a society sophisticated enough for robotic replacements wouldn’t devise new means of transportation.  I guess you can’t have a car chase without cars.  One of many off-putting elements, like Bruce Willis with hair.  Once you peel back the surface layer, there’s a mess of problems underneath.  It’s best to lie back and turn off your mind.

In the end Surrogates is a fun bit of popcorn escapism that could serve as an android appetizer to I, Robot or perhaps more intellectually engaging futurism.

3 out of 5.