Surrogates (2009)

**

Directed by Jonathan Mostow

Screenplay by Michael Ferris & John Brancato
Based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele

Starring:
Bruce Willis ... Tom Greer
Radha Mitchell ... Peters
Rosamund Pike ... Maggie
Boris Kodjoe ... Stone
James Cromwell ... Older Canter
Ving Rhames ... The Prophet

Rated PG-13
Runtime: 1 hr. 29 min.


Why Surrogates? It's the question I imagine you're wondering. I haven't blogged with any sort of consistency, so why did I decide that Surrogates was something I not only needed to see but also needed to review?

Well, first, I get a free Redbox code the beginning of the month and this was one of the movies I knew The Girlfriend didn't want to see. A-ha! But apparently I did. Yes. It's true. On to the second reason: I read a book about cloud computing. It's entitled The Big Switch: Rewiring the World from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr. Highly recommended. Short explanation of cloud computing: computers will no longer have software. They'll simply be ports to access the internet where the programs will be housed. This is already beginning. Google Docs anyone?

So as I was reading this book, I extrapolated what this could eventually mean and arrived at the underlying premise of Surrogates. People no longer go outside in their own bodies. They plug into their surrogates at home, controlling them as they go out into the world to live their lives. These surrogates most often turn out to be idealized versions of themselves. Surrogate Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) has a full head of hair. It's an intriguing premise. Too bad the movie isn't.

It sure seems like it should be, though. This movie wants to have its cake and eat it too. And also your cake. And ice cream. And that deep dish pizza at the next table over. Below, some of the conventions the movie touches on but never fully realizes.

Police Procedural: A young man and woman die when their surrogates get zapped. Unlike The Matrix, this shouldn't happen. Bruce Willis investigates.

Film Noir: Would you believe the murders lead to a conspiracy? Also, Bruce's surrogate gets damaged while investigating. He's all alone out there.

Social Commentary: Some people don't want to live through surrogates. They live in ghettos. They're led by The Prophet (Ving Rhames)

Action: Robots are much stronger than humans and can leap really high.

Drama: Bruce lost his son before the movie begins. He tries to reach out to his wife (Rosamund Pike). She wants to lose herself in her surrogate. That young man who dies at the beginning? Turns out he's the son of the man who invented surrogates, Canter Strickland (James Cromwell). He and Bruce Willis bond.

Mistaken Identity: Yeah, about that bonding scene. It's weird. Mr. Strickland's using a surrogate. An adolescent surrogate. A 15-year-old talking about losing his son is just somehow odd. People can also plug into any surrogate they want. It's illegal, but who cares in the movies?

Sure seems like a lot, doesn't it? It is. However, there's not actually too much here for one movie. The issue is that they give equal shrift to everything. The filmmakers needed to figure what they were trying to say and focus on that. Think about how successful Dark City was when all it focused on was the film noir. As it is, there's bravery here as evidenced by the movie's conclusion, it's just mired in plot and convention.

I also think the surrogates could have been portrayed better. There's a hypothesis entitled the uncanny valley. Stated simply, the closer something gets to resembling a human, the less empathy a human will feel toward it. The surrogates in the movie are the actual actors either with more makeup or CGI touch-up. It's still readily apparent that it's the actors. I think using either motion capture or full CGI rendering might have provided a more interesting commentary. We the viewer would have felt less empathy for the surrogates, which is the movie's wish. That would then have forced us as viewers to work through how the society in the movie would have worked through these same feelings.

But again, the movie put too much effort into too many places. It's details like these that got left behind.