Willis Stars in 'Surrogates'

By in Entertainment,

Imagine this: you're running on a rooftop, easily breaking land speed records. You see someone you know 10 stories down, so you decide to step off of the building. Rather than act in the lamest way possible and fall and break your neck, you careen down the side of the building, bounce a few times, get up and dust yourself off. And then maybe you do a backflip just for shits and giggles.

In the fictional world of "Surrogates" this experience would not have been out of the ordinary for anyone. Director Jonathan Mostow's film, based on the 2005-06 comic book series of the same name, stars Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell as FBI Agents Greer and Peters.

They are working the case of the first murders in years; ever since the invention of Surrogates people can stay in the safety and comfort of their house while living their life in any death defying or harmful way they want through their robotic bodies. These murders were done with a new weapon, too; it attacks the surrogates but kills the person using the robot as well. Detective Green has to solve the murders while staying out of the zone of humans called the Dreads, who have a hatred for technology and how it has consumed peoples' way of life.

He inevitably ends up over there, and loses his government assigned surrogate. I have to admit that this, as well as other parts in the movie, are fairly obvious from near to the beginning.

By losing his surrogate, Greer starts to develop a new affinity for living life as himself. We see the required transition scenes, with Greer wandering down the street and flipping out at any noise or person that happens to be around him, until he starts to get adjusted to this new way of life.

As the movie progresses, it spirals more and more into the only possible conclusion; does Greer let the people live as they have, false portrayals of lives while they are strapped into chairs in their living room? Or does he take the final step and disconnect the surrogates forever, letting people return to life as it should have been?

I have a few gripes when it comes to this movie. While I like the way the director portrayed the separation of humans living without technology and humans with, the message of "wake up, put down your BlackBerrys, go outside" seems a little overdone at this point.

There were also a few scenes that struck me as too convenient, where Greer might have time to save everyone but through forgetting one key thing it takes him down to the very last second. Also there were a few parts that Greer narrowly escaped a death that would have ended a normal person's life, let alone someone that had barely moved for years and got scared when cars beeped their horns.

The film had the feel of a sixties B-movie, with weak explanations for plot points and fairly obvious twists. Overall, it was an entertaining popcorn-chomper kind of film and I give it a 7/10.

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