Sometimes there are instances when a cinema audience just want to be taken on a journey through a visceral action-film, times when challenging drama is not required and visual stimulation and special effects are all that’s on the wish list. Everybody’s entitled to a drop in standards and a little indulgence in a… well, guilty pleasure if you like.
On the face of things, Bruce Willis’ latest Showpiece, Surrogates, is just the kind of film to fulfil those pleasures. Willis’ top-billing and furrowed brow on the film’s posters suggest that ‘the vested one’ is in full-on action mode. But if there was any doubt, the opening 10 minutes of Surrogates puts us at ease.
Surrogates Plot Outline
All the signifiers are there as we’re taken on a brief journey through the 14 year development of the Surrogate phenomenon - the invention of robots that are controlled in mind and body by a human host when connected via a computer system. It’s the classic story of a company that becomes too big for its boots and a technology spiralling wildly out of control. When James Cromwell makes an appearance as the Surrogate creator – a man synonymous with corrupt organisations after his role in L.A. Confidential – the writing is on the wall.
Surrogates is one in a long line of films that alludes to a deeper message about the state of human vanity, although coming just a fortnight after the disappointing action romp, Gamer, which contained almost identical themes, it’s a mechanism that seems a little too familiar and over used.
Surrogates’ Vision of the Future
In Surrogates, the world’s population has retreated further into an anti-social environment - humans become recluses in their own homes in order to live out their normal lives in the public domain through the guise of a Surrogate robot. Each Surrogate can be as clean cut and handsome as the inhabitant desires, giving every man, woman and child the opportunity to live life through a better version of themselves.
It’s an existence that has its opposition though, a rebellious ‘anti-surrogate’ faction has materialised and with its Bin Laden-esque leader, known as The Prophet (Ving Rhames), the ‘human over Surrogate’ revolution is gathering pace.
When the son of Surrogate founder, Canter (Cromwell), is murdered, the detective team of Greer (Bruce Willis) and Peters (Radha Mitchel) are brought in to investigate matters. However, one thing separates this crime from any other. The murder weapon seems able to kill both the surrogate and its human inhabitant, something which throws the previously safe nature of the Surrogate world into disarray.
Die Hard Bruce Meets Surrogates Bruce
The Surrogate version of Bruce Willis takes some time to get used to, introduced in film noir style at the scene of Canter Jr.’s murder, Greer is a clean cut version of the esteemed action hero. Surrogates employs the same CG ageing techniques as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with each Surrogate taking on the appearance of a younger, more elegant version of its host. A clean cut dress sense and a rubbery, synthetic complexion reminiscent of Anne Robinson’s lifted chops are the order of the day. Detective Greer is certainly not the rugged Bruce Willis that audiences are used to.
But Bruce doesn’t leave it too long before he bursts through his Surrogate exterior and into the action hero we all know and love. Just as Superman can’t save the world as Clarke Kent, there’s no way the world can be saved by a clean cut Bruce with a conservative side parting is there? No. Hot on the trail of Carter Jnr’s killer, Greer has his Surrogate immobilised and is forced to pursue the investigation as his human alternative… yes you’ve guessed it, a shaven-headed, goatee-sporting, bloodied action hero. And no, it’s not long before a car chase takes place either.
Summary of Surrogates
Despite suffering obvious action film clichés; Greer’s broken home (a Bruce Willis movie trademark), or the unscrupulous hierarchies dominating world civilisation, Surrogates is actually quite an entertaining movie.
As mentioned earlier, it’s easy to foresee where the film will take us from the opening 10 minutes, but Surrogates is conveniently short enough to avoid boring the audience and incurring any real wrath for wasting their time, and genuinely includes several twists in its final act aren't that predictable. Although rent-a-hero Bruce Willis doesn't venture too far from his comfort zone, he's no doubt aware of his place on the planet as a relatively limited - but specialised and functional - actor (something which lends itself to the rather one-dimensional facial expresions and mannerisms of the Surrogate robots, in fact).
Surrogates will be largely forgotten in just a few months time, more of a DVD rental for an empty Friday night than anything else, but there’s 90 minutes of light-on-the-brain entertainment nonetheless.
Verdict: 3/5
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