SURROGATES
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, language, sexuality and a drug-related scene.
88 minutes
Touchtone Pictures
*** out of 5
I freely admit it; I’m a big fan of director Jonathan Mostow. But sometimes you can feel a director slipping with each film and I really hope that with some more films under his belt and his name back in the writer’s credit he can get himself back on track. With his first theatrical outing he brought us a spectacular little film called “Breakdown” starring Kurt Russel and Kathleen Quinlan in a fight for survival along the highways of the back roads. This was co-written with the same writer he teamed up for to give us “U-571” (Sam Montgomery) which brought bigger stars along with it such as Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, and Jon Bon Jovi. It was a very claustrophobic and intense film that almost completely takes place under water and within in confines of a submarine yet managed to be gripping and interesting all the way through which is a big deal for a guy who has no normal interest in the war genre.
For Mostow’s third theatrical outing he teamed up with one of the most powerful movie stars of all time, now-Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also brought along some new writers to the series, Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato. These four brought us the much maligned “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.” I am a big supporter of this film. Most people hate it but it never took itself seriously, had some amazing robot-on-robot fight scenes and gave us the first true downer ending of the whole series. And anyone who can’t find the beauty in the mayhem behind the never-ending scene of street destruction just needs to realize their watching a movie about robots and really let their suspension of disbelief go crazy.
In Mostow’s latest directing effort he brings back the robots and the “T3” writers but completely check their brains at the door with “Surrogates.” Thankfully they also brought along another one of the world’s reigning action stars with them, Mr. John McClane himself, Bruce Willis. Based on a graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele something seems to have been lost in the translation here. There’s plenty of heady ideas but its set up against a who-dunnit that’s so obligatory you wish there was more action along the way to make up for what is totally lost in the story department. I guess this makes us not forget that the writing partners, while bringing us the likes of “The Game,” “T3” and this summer’s “Terminator Salvation,” also reaped upon us “Watchers 2,” “The Net,” “Primeval” and their worst film to date, “Catwoman.” Their writing is a mixed bag for sure but when they get it right it’s usually more than watchable; especially when they have a good director behind them such as Mostow or David Fincher (“The Game”).
In “Surrogates” the year of “Present Day” is never made mention to but it starts with an interesting set up showing news clips and interviews that took place “14 Years Ago” when Dr. Canter (James Cromwell) has developed the technology behind the surrogate machines to allow people with disabilities to lead fully functional lives through the use of these machines controlling them with their own brain cells. “11 Years Ago” it is said that the use of the surrogate machines becomes more mainstream and normal people beginning using them to lead their days without the worry of pain or injury. “7 Years Ago” we are told that through the use of the every day population becoming more and more surrogate and less and less real, live humans the crime rate has then dropped to only 1% across the country. “3 Years Ago” there is a rise in tension between humans and surrogate users and a very “District 9” “Human Coalition Reservation” is formed where only humans are allowed to enter which is run by “The Prophet” (Ving Rhames).
For the first time in years a murder has taken place in “Present Day.” Dr. Canter’s son has been out partying through the use of a surrogate and someone uses a weapon against him which not only completely fries the Identity Card of the machine but the Dr. Canter’s son’s brain as well in the process. Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is brought in to investigate with his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell). After speaking with Dr. Canter himself they stop off on another floor and speak with someone in the manufacturing department where they find out that a bunch of Army surrogates were returned with not only their identity cards missing but their optics removed as well. Eventually it is brought forth that a machine called the “Overload Device” has been manufactured within the Army that can obviously kill the surrogates along with their human counterpart. Now Greer not only has to find out who killed Dr. Canter’s son but try to uncover who’s really behind the weapon, piece together the conspiracy behind its use and as always, try to save humanity in the process.
Yes, its standard action/sci-fi cliché here but it’s all in good fun and never meant to be too serious. Willis never really gets the chance to go into McClane mode until about an hour into the movie but there is a great scene that consists of him just standing in a hallway talking to his wife, Maggie (Rosamund Pike) conversing about simply just wanting the real her again and for them to stop living a marriage of machines. Another scene where the two argue in public and she simply shuts down her surrogate when the situation gets too tense for her brings a whole new meaning to the fight or flight condition.
The main drawback to the film as a whole is that it’s constructed as a mish mash of lots of other sci-fi thriller films. Everything from the already mentioned “District 9” and “Teminator” films to “A.I.,” “Minority Report,” and even “The Village” have scenes or situations “borrowed” right out of them if not straight outright. Had the film either had bigger ambitions with its own theme, maybe followed the source material more closely, or just gone for the most broad approach and gone with the full blown big dumb action angle things would have turned out much better than they do. I was pretty surprised with the final climax of the film though and for me it made up for most of the shortcomings along the way.
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