Surrogates should have been an exciting, action-packed science fiction movie in the vain of The Fifth Element or I, Robot; but it’s nowhere near as good as those movies. It’s kind of bland, and oddly for a movie that cost around 80 million bucks to make, looks kind of cheap. The movie was a box office flop upon release and its easy to see why. It’s just not very good.
Bruce Willis (usually reliable) sleep-walks through his role as an FBI agent investigating a murder. The murder takes place in the near future, where robotic “surrogates” stand in for real people and assume their operator’s life, while the operator can enjoy the safety of their own homes. After an operator is killed when his surrogate is destroyed, Willis and his partner (a miscast Radha Mitchell) come in to try to solve the mysterious death. Willis’s character must venture out of his apartment for the first time in decades after his surrogate is damaged. It all sounds provocative but plays flat on the screen. The central mystery of the movie is just not that interesting, a kind of noir-Blade Runner retread, and the movie is directed with little energy or style by B-movie director Jonathan Mostow. The widescreen picture quality is good and so is the audio but the DVD has just a music video and an audio commentary as extras.
Surrogates is a bland dud from start to finish. There is a good chase or two but the central story and weak acting make it impossible to care about the outcome of the movie. Willis and other solid actors are stranded in a lackluster science fiction tale that has little to recommend about it, and is best skipped all together.
Grade: D
Loading ...