Surrogates

The Long and Short Of It

If you’re short on time, I’ll give you the quick version of my review: I hated this movie. If you’ve got a few more minutes, I’ll be happy to tell you why.

Bruce Willis stars as Tom Greer, an FBI officer trying to solve a murder in a futuristic world where the use of robotic surrogates is wide-spread among humans. The murder plot is so flimsy and void of all of emotion that it doesn’t really bear inspection here. What does bear inspection, though, is that this film couldn’t even be saved by a compelling science fiction take on the future, or by decent acting.

The use of robotic surrogates is touted as “Life…Only Better” to the population in this movie. Humans can choose what they look like – meaning, of course, they’re all beautiful – and can do whatever crazy, adventurous things they want. Surrogates can be shot, fall from great heights, get run over by cars, and the humans will never feel it. There’s no threat of disease or danger. I was confused by the constant contradiction of a sense of connection between the surrogates and humans, though. At some points, the film implies that humans receive a rush of exhilaration from having their surrogates in extreme situations or even engaging in promiscuous sexual encounters. And yet other times we’re shown that surrogates are immune to the sounds of traffic and the general busy atmosphere of just walking down the street. Which is it? – can the human feel what happens to the surrogate, or not? And if not, what’s the point?

Also, an immediate problem with having all your stars portraying robots is that they end up coming off as…well…robotic. 89 minutes of perfectly-coiffed, flawless-skinned, stiff-necked people? Not so much fun to watch.

Motherly Advice: I had all the filters set to maximum, since the PG-13 rating was for a number of things: intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, language, sexuality, and a drug-related scene. The filters worked great, and they worked overtime. I could tell that a high amount of language was silenced, and several scenes of violence and sexuality were skipped altogether. With the filters on, I could have sat and watched the movie with any of my kids (9 and older) in the room without much concern. Although, to be honest, I’m not sure they would have enjoyed it much, and I probably would have ended up explaining a lot of the story to them, since it didn’t make much sense on its own.

Stacey Nerdin- In Search of a Diaper Changing Surrogate