'Surrogates' becomes unintentionally silly more than scary By
on September 25, 2009 at 5:31 AM, updated September 25, 2009 at 12:00 PM

By Andrew Jefchak | The Grand Rapids Press


For many years I've been a country jogger or walker, and if I don't peer into the cars that pass by, I might convince myself I'm the only person within miles. Oddly enough, that sense of a world absent of people also is the basic premise in "Surrogates," a sometimes interesting futuristic adventure that often gets its feet tangled in loose ends.

In the film, the streets of Boston are crowded, but the pedestrians -- all beautiful women and handsome men -- are robots, social surrogates who go through daily life acting out the thoughts and fantasies of their human operators. The latter, seeing no need to wash up or change clothes, look awful, but they never go outside, preferring to lie down in contraptions that resemble dentists' chairs, wired to gorgeous fakery.



Rated: PG-13, violence, language, sexual content
Cast: Bruce Willis, Rosamund Pike, Radha Mitchell, Ving Rhames
Director: Jonathan Mostow
Run time: 93 minutes

A fast-moving introductory section provides background material about VSI, a cybergiant corporation changing the world through the genius of Canter, an inventor played by James Cromwell. It's a small role, but crucial in that the plot of the film springs forth from the strange murder of his son.

For years, the crime rate in every area had fallen to almost nothing, for even the worst disputes would lead to violence limited to the surrogates. If they bashed each other's heads in, green slime might pour out of the faux corpses, but their bathrobe-clad masters, without so much as a scratch, could simply order a new robot.

If you're familiar with "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or "The Stepford Wives," think of the new film similarly, but get rid of the conspiracy and paranoia. Imagine the victims turned into consumers who welcome the transformations.

But then big shifts take place in director Jonathan Mostow's ("Terminator 3") robotic fantasy. While out having a wild time, the surrogate of Canter's son is zapped to death, along with that of a fake sexy blond, in a Boston alley. According to the film's futurism, it should be no big deal. Unthinkably, young Canter himself also dies, off in the distance, while hooked up to the surrogate's network.

FBI agent Greer (Bruce Willis), or at least his "surry," as they come to be known, gets involved in this dumbfounding case, along with a female partner named Peters (Radha Mitchell). But after Greer's counterpart is nearly zapped and the real Greer sustains wounds, he eventually discovers evidence of the special weapon that does the zapping.

There's also a pro-human insurgency, scattered around in urban pockets, ostensibly led by a thunder-voiced man who calls himself The Prophet (Ving Rhames). Contrasting the chic, fake Boston, the human areas are largely junkheaps, and their inhabitants rarely let their rotten teeth show a grin.

Parts of the picture are unintentionally silly, like the frozen smirk on Willis as surrogate, or the extended laughter by partying surrogates while the human Willis senselessly pummels one of their fellows.

At the end, the girl behind me, who must have been in her late teens, and the bouncing infant in front of me, were both giggling. Perhaps I missed something, but I'm certainly not going back for another look.

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