Surrogates

I like positive sci-fi and because the genre has received a nice beating from fantasy in the last two decades, and pure sci-fi films are currently quite rare. I should thus appreciate any film not teeming with wizards, elves, dragons, or mythical powers. Unfortunately, a lot more is needed for a quality experience and one of the fundamental things I insist on is for the fantastic world to be logical and fully functional within its system. Unfortunately, Surrogates completely fails in this regard. Practically the whole film submits to the superficial spectacle with slick visuals, top-notch special effects, a star-studded cast, and an overall bombastic production. However, the screenplay is full of holes and I would have to completely turn off my brain for this spectacle to become bearable for me. Some films only take a part of their source material and forfeit deeper meaning, but if they function within their invented world, I have no major objections to a popcorn spectacle. But Mostow's world is built on nonsense. It is simply subservient to us watching flashy chases ending with a helicopter crash or robot surrogates jumping from one car to another. It is even more disappointing considering the involvement of several excellent actors and the wasted budget. Overall impression: 25%. (30/04/2010)

I was expecting a film in the style of I, Robot, offering an interesting story spiced up with great visuals, but I’m not as impressed with the final result. Jonathan Mostow is a skilled director, Terminator 3 has quality, but Surrogates didn’t blow me away. The idea is unconventional and quite refreshing, and in today’s film industry, I’m glad for every novel concept that comes along. But it's true that I wouldn’t classify the film's execution as above average. The plot was very weak, and from the start, it was predictable who the villain would be. With such a high budget, I expected a more A-list production, but some scenes felt more like B-movie quality (which I don’t understand, because a large amount of money was indeed poured into the film). Bruce Willis is the main highlight of the film; I enjoyed his dual role, and it was clear that he still fits into such roles. The other actors delivered passable performances as well. A few scenes were quite good (for example, the one with the helicopter), but overall, not much stuck with me. It had higher potential. 67%. (25/10/2017)

Bruce gave himself a nice old bit of action, but so why not, it didn't look awkward at all... only the hairpiece in the robo-creature was really funny... :-D I think it's a shame that the movie got such a low rating, I don't think it deserves it, but I get it. It's such a tired, long-winded, bland and flavorless film, even though it's only 88 minutes long. Which is a pity. For such a rip-off... ;-)) [SPOILER] And once again, everyone survived, and once again, Bruce was so awesome, brilliant and moral; coincidentally, the idea of wiping out 98% of the human population isn't so bad... X-D (24/10/2009)

It would probably have been better if they hadn’t given away almost the whole movie in the first clip, but in any case I reasonably enjoyed myself. Some of it is seriously gourmet style (yep, the chase with the one-armed Bruce), but most of it was more like marzipan on an over-sweet cake. The story is clearly not fully thought through, even though I’m ready to believe that as a comic book it was at least 50% better. Also, I didn’t much like Mostow’s plastic vision. Did they all really have to look THAT artificial? (12/12/2009)

Surrogates is to some extent a B- movie with a grade-A budget. It is based on an interesting idea that aptly allegorizes the artificiality of contemporary peroxide-and-shopping culture. However, it needed a more ambitious screenwriter who would write something more than an action-packed forgettable flick made marketable thanks to Bruce Willis. In the film, we find motifs familiar from Children of Men (“dreadlocked guys” on the margins of society) and the attractive high-tech visuals of I, Robot, and it wants to be deadly serious like Spielberg’s Minority Report. However, unlike those movies, Surrogates does not dare to take a single step in its own direction and prefers to work with proven twists, tries to look clever by being unnecessarily contrived and at least in one (the final) scene, it is even ridiculous due to the futility of its screenplay. The character of the dreadlocked “Prophet”, played by Ving Rhames, is not well executed; Willis himself is alright as the only link between the viewer and the real world of living people, but unfortunately without any cool lines or humor, which could have provided some needed comic relief. (15/09/2009)