I went to an advance showing of Surrogates tonight and while it starts out a bit silly I ended up really liking it. The films strives for the mock realism of district nine but ends up falling short of that level of intensity. I have not read the graphic novel upon which the film is based, however knowing it's a multi part graphic novel is a bit odd since the film in incredibly short. I believe it clocks in at less than an hour and a half long. Rarely do I feel that the climax is reached TOO quickly in a film but everything seems to fall into place with little explanation as too how the characters know what's going on other than blind luck.
The movie sees Tom, played by Bruce Willis as a cop whose living through a surrogate. Think i-Robot but with less tension between the humans and the robots. Surrogates function in a way that humans can lie down with caps over their eyes and neurologically control attractive, boring versions of themselves. Curiously, Tom's surrogate is a cop with a blond comb over. Tom however is growing tired of relying on his surrogate. He wants to see his wife more often...his real wife.
In one of the film's many plot holes, a vagrant "meatbag" human (one who is against the idea of surrogates) uses a "device" to kill surrogates which somehow kills humans at the same time by making their brains exploded. If that sounds convoluted...that's because it is. There's many things in this film left unexplained including that aspect as well as the need for surrogates in the first place. Why bother? These thoughts are quickly erased once Tom is on a chase to find out who is trying to kill surrogates and why.
The film has a very fast pace like I said above with from the point of action to the climax very little digression. Within the title crawl you already what surrogates are, what their purpose is and the history of the surrogates. I wish they could slow down a bit and discuss more of the mentality behind the process, but I suppose that's up to the audience to decide.
Surrogates is a film that made me happy to be alive as I walked out and thought about it. It's an entertaining film but I can't help but feel that it falls into the same lines of action/drama/sci fi movies as recent ones like The Happening, I am Legend and i-Robot. It's definitely that kind of movie and if you enjoy that, then it won't disappoint.
The movie sees Tom, played by Bruce Willis as a cop whose living through a surrogate. Think i-Robot but with less tension between the humans and the robots. Surrogates function in a way that humans can lie down with caps over their eyes and neurologically control attractive, boring versions of themselves. Curiously, Tom's surrogate is a cop with a blond comb over. Tom however is growing tired of relying on his surrogate. He wants to see his wife more often...his real wife.
In one of the film's many plot holes, a vagrant "meatbag" human (one who is against the idea of surrogates) uses a "device" to kill surrogates which somehow kills humans at the same time by making their brains exploded. If that sounds convoluted...that's because it is. There's many things in this film left unexplained including that aspect as well as the need for surrogates in the first place. Why bother? These thoughts are quickly erased once Tom is on a chase to find out who is trying to kill surrogates and why.
The film has a very fast pace like I said above with from the point of action to the climax very little digression. Within the title crawl you already what surrogates are, what their purpose is and the history of the surrogates. I wish they could slow down a bit and discuss more of the mentality behind the process, but I suppose that's up to the audience to decide.
Surrogates is a film that made me happy to be alive as I walked out and thought about it. It's an entertaining film but I can't help but feel that it falls into the same lines of action/drama/sci fi movies as recent ones like The Happening, I am Legend and i-Robot. It's definitely that kind of movie and if you enjoy that, then it won't disappoint.