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RATING:  
SINGAPORE : Imagine living in a world where crime rates and chances of catching diseases are at an all time low as everyone lives in isolation and interact with each other through robotic versions of themselves.
That is the premise behind “Surrogates”, based on the graphic novel of the same name. The science-fiction thriller is helmed by director Jonathan Mostow who previously made another android movie with “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”.
Imagine the endless possibilities with having robotic surrogates. It may seem practical and pretty cool as one can take on the identity of any person. Individuals can live life vicariously and be a hot blonde chick, a model with a six-pack, or a younger version of oneself.
While their robot equivalents are running the world and doing all the work, looking like supermodels, their human operators are pasty white couch potatoes devoid of sunlight and cooped up at home where they are considered safe and “plugged in”. The unimaginable happens when a surrogate user is found murdered after the surrogate he’s “connected to” is destroyed.
Enter FBI agents Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell) as their own surrogates investigate the first murder in years to rock this seemingly utopian world.
Things get more complicated as more murders involving humans and their surrogates being destroyed occur and fingers seem to point toward the Dreads, a group of humans led by The Prophet (Ving Rhames) who are against the use of surrogates.
Greer soon becomes embroiled in a conspiracy behind the crimes after physically stepping out to take over his own surrogate as a mere mortal, which seemed to be evident judging from his excessive bleeding.
He finds himself longing for his wife Maggie’s actual self instead of her Stepford wife type surrogate whom she prefers interacting through while both carry leftover emotional baggage from the death of their son.
Despite the B-grade stunts and special effects, “Surrogates” moves fairly quickly for an action movie and keeps the pace up.
Fake tan and toupe aside, getting Willis to play an expressionless surrogate seemed somewhat fitting.
Beneath the mannequin like robots and plastic smiles lie a deeper message and a social commentary about how technology is taking over the world with humans being overtly reliant and addicted to it, turning us into cold, detached beings like the machines.
- CNA/il
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