In a future where most humans have become virtual shut-ins, employing android Surrogates to perform their daily routines, violent crime is largely a thing of the past. But someone is murdering Surrogates, using a weapon so powerful it not only destroys a droid but also liquefies the brain of its human controller. When the son of the man who originally pioneered Surrogate technology becomes a victim, FBI agents Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and Jennifer Peters (Radha Mitchell) are assigned to investigate.

CRITIQUE

Despite the fact Bruce Willis can’t seem to pick a good script to save his life (the few good movies he’s made for the past fifteen years look like accidents), I was sort of looking forward to this movie. My interest came solely from Jonathan Mostow’s involvement; although he has no distinctive style, Mostow has proven himself to be a crafter of good, solid action flicks.

There’s nothing particularly distinguished about Breakdown, U-571, or Terminator 3, but they achieve their goals in an entertaining way. But no director will ever have a perfect track record (except for Steve Gordon, of course), and Surrogates marks Mostow’s first misfire. And it’s a pretty big misfire.

The man who earned the love of haters of bland rock music everywhere by knocking Jon Bon Jovi into the great beyond with a submarine hatch has stumbled mightily, delivering a movie that is mediocre on every level. It offers no surprises whatsoever, recycling characters and ideas into an obvious mystery, and fails to exploit the possibilities of its setting.

Here’s the first problem I had: the identity of the movie’s villain is obvious from the moment he first appears, as is his motive. That’s a fatal flaw for a mystery, especially one that has nothing else of interest to offer. And there’s the second problem: you won’t see anything here you haven’t seen before, and the movie becomes impossibly dull and uninteresting once you realize this.

Why endure a movie you know has absolutely nothing new to offer and can’t find a way to breathe life into what it does have to offer? Honestly, had I not actively requested to review Surrogates, thereby obligating to watch it, I likely would have given up on it early on. God knows I wanted to.

The movie could have shored itself up by exploring the world it creates, but this proves to be one hell of a missed opportunity. I’ve never read the Robert Venditti-Brett Weldele comic book on which the movie is based, but I’d like to think it contains more worldbuilding than John Brancato and Michael Ferris’s illogical, hole-ridden script. (I’d also like to think the comic doesn’t crib so heavily from the works of Philip K. Dick, but I get the feeling it does.)

Here’s a world where most people almost never venture outside the confines of their homes; in fact, unless it’s to feed or relieve themselves (I suspect, but I’m not really sure), they never leave the confines of the device used to controlled their robotic stand-ins. I’d like to know how a society gets to such a state, and I’d like to see the particulars of the impact such technology would have on a society, but the movie offers neither. Nor does it answer the thousand or so questions raised by such a plot. For example, do people send their Surrogates to church or temple? Are Surrogates capable of any sort of sexual activity? How much does one cost? And how did the socio-economic playing field get so level that seemingly anyone can afford one?

Despite a reported budget of eighty million dollars, Surrogates is about as polished as you average straight-to-disc offering. There are several hundred visual effects elements scattered throughout the movie, but not a single one is up to the level of a feature film; the green-screen work is sub-par, the CG effects are very rough, and the animatronics are phony. Where did all of that money go? I don’t know--maybe it went into that silly rug Willis’s Surrogate wears.

But at least the rug turns in a decent performance, which is more than can be said for Willis himself, who looks like he couldn’t possibly care less. The same is true for most of the cast; maybe they realized they were fighting a losing battle and just gave up. And if you’re like me and go in expecting Mostow to deliver some good action, you can forget it; most of the action in this futuristic thriller consists of foot chases, and they’re CG-heavy. Yay.

One last thing--if for some reason you do chose to watch this movie, ask yourself why all of those people at the end aren’t shading their eyes.

THE VIDEO

The 2.40:1/1080p transfer--encoded with AVC onto a 50GB disc--is reflective of the movie’s intended look, which is both good and bad. Good in that this is the way it’s supposed to look, bad in that this is the way it’s supposed to look.

Mostow and cinematographer Oliver Wood constantly play with the contrast, which can weaken blacks, bring a slightly noisy appearance to the photography’s heavy grain structure, and scrub away some of the detail (although the lack of detail on the faces of the Surrogates is an intentional move, designed to make them look for artificial); there’s also an orange cast to many interior shots, which has a tendency to make the actors look a little like anthropomorphic pumpkins. Exteriors often look excellent, with a level of clarity and detail that makes the visual effects look that much worse.

THE AUDIO

The only flaw in the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is some dropped dialogue, which doesn’t occur enough to be a major detriment but nevertheless occurs far more than it should. Otherwise the presentation is just what you’d expect from a futuristic action-thriller: loud, active, and immersive. Low end activity is plentiful and deep.

French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks are also included; English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

All of the video-based extras here are presented in high-definition.

Kicking things off is a commentary by Jonathan Mostow, who probably should have asked someone else to pitch in. Mostow is affable enough, but the track is spotty and dry. It is fairly comprehensive, though, although your appreciation will definitely be affected by your reaction to the movie itself (mine was).  

Four deleted scenes (HD, 6 minutes total) are also included; they add nothing to the story. As is evidenced by the incomplete effects work, these were obviously cut early in the editing process.

A More Perfect You: The Science of Surrogates (HD, 16 minutes) divides its time between selling the movie/acting as a making-of piece and looking at the current state/future of robotics.

Breaking the Frame: A Graphic Novel Comes to Life (HD, 7 minutes) is a chat with the creators of the comic book. Some of the comic sequences that made the transition to the movie are presented here in pseudo-animated form. 

Closing out the extras is a music video for Breaking Benjamin’s “I Will Not Bow” (the terrible song that plays over the movie’s closing credits).

FINAL THOUGHT

Half-baked mystery plus half-baked futurism equals move along, there’s nothing to see here.