Surrogates (2009)

Surrogates (2009) takes an interesting concept, people living through robotic avatars, and turns it into a straightforward action thriller. The plot is easy to follow, with a few twists along the way, but it never really digs deep into the bigger questions it could have explored. The movie has a polished look, and the visual effects for the surrogates are decent for the time, making them feel just artificial enough. The directing keeps the pacing tight, but the script doesn't do much beyond moving the story from one action scene to the next. There's a moment or two where it tries to be thought-provoking, but it doesn’t fully commit. Bruce Willis does what he always does, playing the tough, weary protagonist, but there’s not much character depth to work with. The supporting cast does fine, but nothing really stands out. Ving Rhames' presence adds some weight to the film, but the dialogue overall is just serviceable. The score is typical for an action thriller, doing its job without being memorable. The cinematography is solid, with some good action sequences, but it doesn’t do anything particularly unique. The movie is entertaining enough, but if you were hoping for something as layered as I, Robot, this one doesn’t quite reach that level. Still, it’s a decent watch if you're in the mood for a simple, action-driven sci-fi flick.

Surrogacy is a perversion. It's an addiction. And you have to kill the addict to kill the addiction. I first viewed Surrogates upon its home format release and positively found it very ordinary. Viewing it again, with focus and in solitude, it proved to be a far better experience. The action scenes are what you would expect for a multi-plex appeasing popcorner, loud, colourful and owing great debt to modern technology. Yet to dismiss this totally as one of those easy money making blockbuster movies is most unfair. Surrogates oozes intrigue, even if it doesn't quite deliver on the smartness written on the page. The idea that in the future robotic alter egos can carry out our everyday mundane functions is cracker-jack, and it opens up a whole can of berserker worms. This is not merely an excuse to have Bruce Willis running around exploding surrogate robots, as much fun as that is of course, there's a deeper emotional core pulsing away as Willis fights the good fight to make sure being human is not cast aside like a thing of the past, that as flawed as we are, hiding away in a surrogate is not the answer. This axis of the story is beautifully realised by the plot strand involving Willis and Rosamund Pike as his wife, with both actors doing fine work to give it the required emotional heft. It may ultimately lose itself to a standard conspiracy plot, but there's intelligence within to make Surrogates a better film than it first appears. 7/10