SURROGATES - REVIEW
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Director: Jonathan Mostow,
Cast: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames
Rating: ****
Surrogate: noun, someone who takes the place of another person.
Technology is a necessary evil. The way in which our lives are ruled
by ejectrinic gadgetry is extrodinary. We as a race are relying
increasingly more on something else to do something we can't be
bothered doing , for us. An early example was the TV remote that
removed the need to actually get up from the couch and reach out to
the tv set to turn the dial that changed the channel. This brilliant
idea gave birth to the Universal Remote and while it doesn't
litterally control the universe, it does a damn fine job of running
your electricals in your house for you with ease.
A 14 year development project has been underway in order to assimilate the use of Surrogates into every-day living. Now the "meatbags" use their Surry's to navigate their daily lives, while the operator stays at home strapped to a chair out of harms way. That is until two operators are killed using their Surry's, an occurrence, the people at VSI, the manufacturers of mass-market surrogates, say is "impossible".
Bruce Willis as Det. Greet
Willis is an FBI Agent who is called in to investigate the deaths, and this leads him on a dangerous path to discovery. One such operator who doesn't leave the house is his wife, who after the death of their son in a car accident, has turned to her Surry for comfort and she doesn't think or feel she belongs in the real world anymore.
James Cromwell is excellent as the now retired founder of VSI Corp. Dr. Canter and Ving Rhames lends a great composure to his role as 'The Prophet' the voice of the people who speak out against the use of surrogates.
Ving Rhames as The Prophet
The initial perception from this reviewer was Surrogates was to be an amalgam of Fifth Element, and The Matrix and whilst some lingering nuances of both remained, a more sophisticated edge crept in.
Whilst this has all the hallmarks of a Bruce Willis actioneer, it is clever and engaging and throws in some interesting ideas about humanity. It forces us to take a look at how we live our lives and our dependancy on modern gadgetry and gizmos and may serve as a reminder of the way in which things are going. Particularly in reference to the gaming world where mayhem can be realised in the press of a button without any physical consequence to the player or players, however if the player could be harmed as a result of their on screen antics, would their actions still be acceptable and would they still carry them out.
The direction is slick and the cinematography with its bright hues, resembling that of a computer game, are clever. There is one particular scene reminiscent of the "falling scene" in The Happening that elevated Surrogates from its ***1/2 rating that it held for the most part. The concept behind the conclusion to the film also held it there.
Unplug from your chair, get up, and go see Surrogates, go on....live a little.
Interview with Bruce Willis on SURROGATES:
BEHIND THE SCENES FEATURETTE:
NOTE: Neither rogerebert.com nor rottentomatoes.com had seen Surrogates at time of writing this review.
