Consider “Surrogates” a CliffsNotes version of a science fiction feature.
We’re still waiting for the full-length treatment of what seems to be a rock solid genre entry.
The new film, which opened with a respectable $15 million over the weekend, involves a future world in which people live their lives through pleasure-seeking androids.
It’s a neat premise, and who better than Bruce Willis to ground a silly sci-fi thriller?
So why the mad dash toward the final credits?
Willis plays Tom Greer, a cop trying to crack the case of two dead surrogates, robots people buy to live vicariously through. Why risk life and limb, or even rejection on the dating scene, when you can buy a flawless robot facsimile and experience everything it does?
Why, indeed. Most of the people we see in “Surrogates” are actually robots buffed to aesthetic perfection, all the while their human owners stay at home receiving all the stimuli they can safely absorb.
The men are movie-star handsome. The women look as if they just stepped out of a Bally’s commercial. “Surrogates” is like a feature-length CW drama.
It’s a great premise, but the film’s scant 85 minutes can’t be bothered to luxuriate in its own setup.
The surrogates’ short circuiting leads to the death of the people connected to them, something which isn’t supposed to happen. How often do variations of that phrase pop up in modern sci-fi films?
Tom is forced to abandon his own surrogate – complete with blond hair – to solve the crime.
“Surrogates,” directed by respectable action auteur Jonathan Mostow (the great “Breakdown”), moves at an impressive clip and bullies past pedestrian dialogue and questionable plot points. It’s a race to the finish, but Mostow squeezes in a few impressive chases without wasting his leading man’s grizzly appeal.
But why so fast and furious? The best science fiction films, like “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” take their time developing atmosphere and the sly sense that we’ve landed in an entirely new reality.
Here, there’s simply no time for such niceties. We don’t know enough about Tom to care when his life is in jeopardy, and the source of the surrogates themselves (James Cromwell) isn’t fleshed out enough to make the big reveal worth our attention.
Quality science fiction is almost an oxymoron these days, so even a tantalizingly terse one like “Surrogates” is worth a genre fan’s attention.
But oh, what might have been had the story been teased to its proper potential.
(Photo: Bruce Willis plays a gritty cop trying to unravel a futuristic mystery in “Surrogates”/Touchstone)
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Haven’t seen this yet. I’ll probably wait for it on DVD. Bur I agree with you 100% about “Alien” and “Blade Runner.” I love sci-fi that drops you into a strange world and allows time for you to explore it along with the characters.
I can’t remember the last truly great sci-fi movie I saw. Minority Report? Has it been that long?
Some will say “District 9″ – I don’t, but it’s closer in spirit to good sci-fi features than we’ve seen in a while.
This one is a missed opp … but not bad by any stretch.
“Some will say ‘District 9′ – I don’t”
Nor do I. “District 9″ may have been good but I wouldn’t know. I spent the majority of the movie with my eyes closed trying to suppress the violent motion sickness that made my head spin.
I hate the shaky cam
I don’t know, it might be nice to see a major sci-fi/action movie and think ‘that was too short’ for a change. I don’t understand why everything has to be over two hours long these days.
Part of Surrogates’ charm is its brevity … it barrels forth without an ounce of fat. But the world it suggests would be great to see more of … and that’s why I felt it was a missed opp.
It reminded me of “Total Recall” – a movie that never gets old. “Surrogates” is by no means a classic, but I thought it was a 85 min of mindless fun. My advice for this one: Don’t think, just enjoy.
And I want to reiterate something JohnFNWayne wrote here a week or so ago. Anything with Bruce Willis merits at least 2 stars.
james cromwell…….. wasnt he the “creator” in I, Robot (sounds like a similar plot)?
I agree completely. I really enjoyed the movie but felt that it was missing something. While enjoyable, it could have been so much more. That is a shame. The actors were fine, the premise was interesting, and the special effects were well done.
The music was not memorable though, and the movie was far too short in length. The pacing was also off. It had the feel of a made for tv film. A good movie with a lot of potential, could have been a great sci-fi film.
Still worth seeing. Rosamund Pike is gorgeous. Willis was good, but seemed bored. He lacked the energy, and wit that is so apparent in his other action films. I would like to see a re-edited version, I am sure that they could do a lot to fix it up. Needed a darker feel to it as well. A better score would help immensely.
I looked at a number of online reviews before I watched the movie and ended up enjoying the movie a lot more than I was expecting to. It definitely needed more filling out to develop the characters and the story but there are subtleties that seem to be lost on some people.
Sure it could have been better but considering the emotionally wrenching and intellectually vacant, style over substance tripe Hollywood has been overproducing, it is better than most. Perhaps some of the “citizen” journalists and reviewers took the jab at their own technology filtered realities a little too personally.
If you rate it on a scale of ten and average most reviews out there it is given about a 4 but personally I think it rates closer to a 7