“Surrogates” — A FilmCritic.com Review

Reviewed by: Bill Gibron of Filmcritic.com

Director: Jonathan Mastow
Producer: David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Max Handelman, Elizabeth Banks
Screenwriter: John Brancato, Michael Ferris
Stars: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Ving Rhames, James Cromwell
MPAA Rating: PG-13

FilmCritic.com Rating = 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars

Delivers a surprisingly dense deconstruction on how hazardous getting lost inside technology can truly be.

Virtual reality and artificial intelligence — the two great progressive leaps forward that, to hear the movies tell it, will ultimately destroy the human race. Because of our inherent weaknesses, our need to feel special and not vulnerable and mortal, we will embrace these new technologies, taking them to extremes that will eventually enslave us — mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Six years ago, director Jonathan Mastow was dealing with another kind of future shock when he piloted the uneven Terminator trequel, Rise of the Machines. Now he’s returned, staying within the speculative fiction realm to deliver the thought-provoking Surrogates. While it could use more subtext, it still delivers a surprisingly dense deconstruction on how hazardous getting lost inside technology can truly be.

When a young man is killed outside a nightclub, FBI agents Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchell) are brought in to try and ID the body. Living in a world where robotic “others,” or surrogates, stand in for real people (the home-bound users of these devices control their every move, thought, and reaction), such a death is extremely uncommon. When they discover that it is the son of the man who invented surrogacy, Dr. Canter (James Cromwell), they suddenly smell conspiracy.

While it won’t win any prizes for freshness, Surrogates is still a surprisingly strong entry into the ever-shrinking arena of serious sci-fi.

Read the full review by Bill Gibron at FilmCritic.com.

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