Surrogates: Movie Review (2009)

Directed by Jonathan Mostow, written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris, 89 minutes, rated PG-13.

Forget “Fame.” Pass over “Pandorum.” The week’s better new release is Jonathan Mostow’s “Surrogates,” a sci-fi action movie that, to quote the film, imagines “a world where you can be anyone, go anywhere, do anything. Robotic human surrogates combine the ability of a machine with the grace and beauty of the human body. With most human beings living their lives through their surrogate selves, our world has become a safer place.”

Well, not quite.

Mostow based his film on John Brancato and Michael Ferris’ script, itself a riff on Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele’s graphic novel, and what they’ve created smacks of the popular online game, “Second Life,” only without the violent twists taken here.

Just as in the game, “Surrogates” features normal-looking people who live amazing lives in beautiful-looking bodies. For instance, if you wish, you can look like yourself, only a whole lot better--that is, of course, if you can overlook your surrogate’s soulless eyes and the odd way it walks. As for that last part, what if you’re physically disabled and can’t walk? No problem. Just sit in your “stim chair,” hook yourself up to a surrogate who can walk and exist through them.

Initially, the whole enterprise takes off. Crime, racism, drug addiction and disease plummet. People enjoy pseudosexy times while sitting unbathed and uncombed in the comfort of their own homes. But when surrogate murder enters into the equation--an unthinkable event, especially since it kills the host body--Bruce Willis steps in to investigate as FBI agent Greer.

Greer also is a surrogate, one with poreless skin and a full head of blond hair that suggests Barbie’s pal, Ken, was snatched bald. Soon, in a run of events that would spoil the movie if revealed here, it’s the real Willis we’re looking at, and let’s just say this Greer is a bit more grizzled.

And also critical to all that follows. While he might no longer be physically attractive to his robot wife (Rosamind Pike), who refuses to ditch her pretty surrogate to live life as her real self, Greer has more pressing situations to deal with. You know, like saving the world and mankind from itself. That sort of thing.

Helping him along the way is The Prophet (Ving Rhames, replete with dreadlocks), who is the head of “The Dreaders,” a society of humans who refuse to become surrogates and who, flipping “District 9” on its head, are quarantined as a result. Also key is James Cromwell as the man who initially envisioned and created the surrogate lifestyle, as well as Radha Mitchell as Greer’s fellow detective.

Throughout “Surrogates,” the references are broad and obvious, stretching from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” to “Westworld,” “Blade Runner” and “I, Robot.” The good news is that these reference don’t distract as much as they inform. We are, after all, increasingly becoming a society hooked to our computers, and it’s this fact that gives “Surrogates” its hum of plausibility.

In the future, is it really so much of a stretch to imagine a world in which we don’t need to leave our house in order to live full, fantastic lives? Given the option, some would take it. The problem with the movie is that while the action is swift, the set design is polished and the running time is enjoyably lean, the film leaves behind too many unanswered questions in its quest to drive the action forward. The movie conveniently overlooks obvious problems with becoming a surrogate--reproductive issues, anyone?--which will disappoint those who were seriously intrigued by the ideas that sparked the creation of the movie in the first place.

Grade: B-

View the trailer here.