Do you think Bruce Willis agrees with director Jonathan Mostow that the ‘perfect’ version of him includes a goofy toupee looking as real as… well, as real as numerous body parts of a certain ex-wife?
This is about the most interesting question raised by a viewing of Surrogates, a sci-fi ‘spectacular’ that’s as derivative as Willis’ performances ever since he established his tongue-in-cheek tough guy in the 1980s. Plastered with images and ideas we’ve seen many times before (in 1982’s Blade Runner, 2004’s I, Robot and plenty of others, in between, not to mention before and since), Surrogates is the sort of movie that works best for folks who either don’t remember past movies or don’t care when a film has this few new ideas.
Based on a graphic novel of the same name, the story here revolves around a near-future world in which almost everyone has opted out of living life in the first person. Instead, almost everyone stays at home, plugged into a machine connecting their mind to a robot that’s been made in their image, only more perfect. The premise is that this way of living has dramatically reduced social problems, as people are too busy lying like blobs plugged into their robots to get into any trouble.
No, the film doesn’t explain how this world could really possibly work – how real relationships between people can be established when actual humans are never out and about, or even how the species is going to be propagated in the future, if everyone is living perpetually plugged in. How they get to eat and drink and go to the bathroom also remains unexplained.
But, no matter. This is science fiction, so we’re supposed to just go with it. Enter our hero, Tom Greer (Willis), who looks absolutely marvellous (not) in his robot state. At least we get to see Willis as something closer to real when the actual Tom stands in for his robot semi-doppelganger when it is unfortunately destroyed (toupee and all). This leaves the real guy to come out of his bedroom and look into a huge crisis that threatens to topple the entire Surrogate world: it appears that there’s a weapon out there that can wipe out not just a robot, but also its attached human, in one fell swoop. This threatens to bring down the entire system and the evil mega-corporation (all of these movies feature an evil mega-corporation) that’s behind the entire robot-dominated world system.
Naturally, Greer gets in all sorts of trouble, takes a few shots to the solar plexus and comes back looking for more. And, naturally, Greer saves humanity, as Bruce Willis does in almost all of his movies. Yawn.
How much fun is Surrogates? Well, if sci-fi action is your cup of tea, then you might find it pretty fun, as long as you don’t demand anything more of a movie. There are all sorts of shooting and chasing and explosions and car wrecks. And there is Bruce – our hero – rising above it all.
If you need anything more than action and glitz, then you may find this flick lacking in almost every department. Sure, it’s made capably, in a technical sense. But it’s banal, utterly predictable and often quite stupid. If you’re into that, then lie down, plug yourself in and enjoy the ride. The rest of us? We’ll skip this one.
