Instead of tackling the interesting philosophical and moral dilemmas that arise when a robot lives your life, the creators of ""Surrogates"" diluted the story to yet another Bruce Willis action movie with car chases and brutal fight scenes with near-indestructible robots.
""Surrogates,"" based on a graphic novel, revolves around FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis). Like the majority of humans, Greer is isolated in his home and connected to machines allowing his surrogate to live his life. These robotic representations can be created to look however the operator desires, and can go out and do anything the operator wishes without any harm to the real human.
That is, until a weapon is created to fry surrogates and the brains of their operators, resulting in the first murders in over a decade. Greer and his partner (Radha Mitchell) investigate the killings. This leads the team to the ""father of surrogacy,"" Canter (James Cromwell), and the leader of the anti-surrogacy movement, The Prophet (Ving Rhames).
""Surrogates"" raises many subjects and questions without actually answering them. For example, how do humans live with atrophy caused by lying in a chair all day hooked up to a machine? Can surrogates really be having human contact when humans are not in the world? Would choosing your appearance rid the world of prejudices? Is it still war if there are no human casualties, only monetary losses? Do we lose our humanity if no harm or pleasure comes to our body, only to metal?
The lack of depth in the plot does make the film a bit of a snoozer, and, unfortunately, it affects the acting as well, which is dull though not terrible. Many scenes have no emotion and are more robotic than the surrogates. The one exception is Greer's wife (Rosamund Pike), who does a good job of playing a heartbroken woman trying to suppress all emotion because ofn traumatic events from her past. She brings a sense of human emotion to a film that is controlled by robots.
Grade: C
