Review - Surrogates

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Cinema Voyage - October 2009

Review - Surrogates

October 27th 2009 17:35

The question, "if a movie was made about your life, who would play the starring role" is deemed irrelevant in the world of Surrogates as your surrogate of choice would essentially play yourself. But admittedly it wouldn't be much of a life, as you are wired up in bed, watching your life play out before you. It may be glamourous for a while but in the long term it must get terribly dull not being able to associate with real human beings.

Bruce Willis is suffering from this dilemma. He is policeman Tom Willis who uses a surrogate (complete with a head of hair) to perform his day to day duties protecting his real self from the danger and action his job entails. However Tom is not happy. He is grieving after the death of his son and is hungering for some real life attention from his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike) who is hooked on the use of surrogacy for all facets of her life. Her and everyone else it seems as we are informed that 98% of the world's population uses a surrogate - yes you will need to suspend your belief to even imagine that this could occur.

When the death of two surrogates causes the death of their owners then an immediate investigation takes place headed up by Tom and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell). Up until this incident it was thought that a death of the surrogate would automatically flip a fail-safe switch protecting the owner from being hurt or injured.

By way of investigation we are introduced to Dreads - humans who refuse to adopt to the change and who live exiled from the surrogate inhabited world. Lead by The Prophet (Ving Rhames) it seems that this particular group has turned rogue ready to undertake a rebellion on the rest of the society. What the movie fails to present is a happy medium - but maybe there just isn't one. There are those who are addicted to the use of surrogates and those that do not want to get involved marking themselves as extremists against the robot cloned world.

Directed by Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), the movie certainly generates some fabulous looking concepts and scenes. I felt however that it could have dealt more into the surrogate vs human aspect rather than heading directly down the action route but then again this is a Bruce Willis vehicle and action is what he does.

I enjoy intelligent sci-fi movies and one of my all time favourites is Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days (1995). The idea of hooking up to other people's experiences like a drug could have been delved into further in this movie particularly when the surrogate you inhabit may not resemble your true self at all. Grey territory indeed!

"Still no official word on when, or if, surrogate services can be restored. It appears, at least for now... that we are on our own." Let's hope it stays that way for a while longer!

Voyage Review: 3/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Sci-Fi

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2 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

November 6th 2009 17:41

Film & TV on DVD

Hi Michelle,

From what i have heard this one wastes its fantastic concept with over blown set pieces and empty explorations of the themes...still will check it outr because of my love of sci fi. 9Couldn't be worse than I, Robot, or could it?)

Awesome to know you are a lover of "Strange Days", still one of my faves too.

Comment by Michelle Sweeney

November 6th 2009 21:25

Competition Queen
Always Learning
Cinema Voyage

I didn't think it was worse than I, Robot as I found the concept here slightly more interesting. Although overall just too much action and far less sci-fi exploration for my liking.

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