"Surrogates" (2009) - Movie Review

Substitute for our bodies is the motivation for the scientists to translate the electrical brain signals into physical action and for Hollywood studio to produce more scripts on the ripened and executed future technology of it so that they can milk money. Many have worked greatly and in fact philosophically suggested a journey into the invisible souls of ours. Here in “Surrogates”, it is a marriage losing its charm as there needed a reality check in the concept of getting it screened for the material it carries.

We no longer need to worry about danger or to run amok for losing weights. The VSI technology in the film has come up with the robots from “Terminators” to wander the streets and deal with the outside world. The controlling person can relax in their chair without a reason to get up or dress up. No more care to be hit by a car or to be fearful of taking that skydiving or to talk with their spouses. If they feel threatened, they take off their instruments at home which puts the robot to a standby mode. No way to talk to a doll and hence the opponent walks back leaving the person who is unwilling to talk and takes a shell to hide.

I can see so much of use from these surrogates but there is lot of unanswered questions. Most of the human beings are operating their substitute 24/7 but nature calls and hunger does not seem to be fit in. Or may be it is not a great visual to have a commode attached in the chair. Anyway, so these vagabond robots can be pummeled to pieces with their master lying comfy only getting pissed off about the replacement costs. Recently released “Gamer” proposed the same idea, only that there is no robot but a real person taking hits for his player. It surprised me and here “Surrogates” the surprises are minimal though it stays aboard in the. Too bad it does not make an impression despite a fast action and interesting twists.

It is the future and the surrogates are omnipresent. Two surrogates get fried and the FBI gets called. They say that the crime rates have gone next to nothing and yet the department seems to exist and mainly war seems to exist. Huge misspoke from the introductory description to the world this movie lives in. Does not matter, let me move on. This case is different for two reasons. One is that the person back in the seat is killed too and second is that one of the victims is the son of the scientist, Dr. Lionel Canter (James Cromwell), the inventor of surrogates.

The cops involved are Agent Greer (Bruce Willis) and Agent Peters (Radha Mitchell) whose partnership exists in silences. The reason though can be assumed to the dead marriage Greer has with his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike). They lost their son to an accident which has made Maggie to hide under the machine and ignore the confrontation of the grief. Greer thus despises this luxury while being in it. They have forgotten the feeling of being touched and to touch a live human being.

The drama in this is minimal and the plot twists are sufficient. The reach for the “Surrogates” is noticeably low. It has a material to investigate the human replacements in body and questionable soul and a good plot rarely found in science fiction commercial entertainer. The look of the film is too usual. Director Jonathan Mostow keeps the future world real but adds the plastic faced impostors, yet there is a need for darkness. What is the real loss of using this luxury or what is the greatest gain of losing it?

We have come to live with machines and this as preposterous it appears has a good plausibility in its arrival. I feel disarmed losing the two precious items of mine in daily life, Mac and iPod for servicing. Those luxuries have become a necessity in this generation. The ethical nature of this dependency does not have an end but the application is immaculate. Especially the technology talked in the film. Currently there is a working technology wherein the brain signals are translated into actions in computer software. And as much as the film’s central character has a dislike to this concept, why to have a mode of destroying than reconditioning? Not explained as Willis’ character does not have time to chew for questioning those. “Surrogates” needed a deeper perspective which is not negated but lulled down. In that it comes half baked in its stand. But for once there is no guilt trip or logic drop in the hero running through the people in the platform of a busy street.