Movie Review-"Surrogates"
By Christian Toto www.whatwouldtotowatch.com
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.
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.
Labels: Surrogates Movie Review Bruce Willis science fiction
posted by Ron Futrell at
9:32 AM
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