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Movie Review: Surrogates
Sep. 27th, 2009 07:27 pmJust got back from the movie Surrogates with Bruce Willis, based on the graphic novels by Robert Venditti and Robert Weldele. The basic concept of the movie rocked, in my opinion. Basically, humanity has become reclusive, never leaving their homes/apartments, sending out a robot "surrogate" that handles all of their daily life. And of course those surrogates are all beautiful and flawless, etc. You can certainly see us headed in that direction and I'm certain there are plenty of us that wouldn't mind the option. The idea in the beginning, of course, is that it's safer than going out yourself. It can also be used to help those that are handicapped, etc. You can fight wars without risking lives, etc. All initially good reasons for surrogates, but we as humans tend to start with that and then apply technology to our own lives in less meaningful ways.
So, nearly the entire world is living through surrogates. It seems safe, until someone kills one of the surrogates with a new weapon that also kills the user, which isn't supposed to happen (if your surrogate gets "killed," the user is supposed to be safe due to failsafes built into the system). So the movie plot begins with this murder and spins out from there. I like the entire concept, and I like that the movie wasn't, in the end, really about that concept. The surrogates idea was simply the backdrop for not only a world/idea plot, but also involved a character arc for the main character and a few of those around him. Granted, the world/idea plot and the character plot weren't especially complex, but I don't mind that as long as they're engaging. And I thought this was engaging. I was most involved in the movie when it dealt with the character played by Bruce Willis and the realizations he comes to as it progresses.
Overall, I liked the movie and I'm glad I went. Hollywood needs to make more movies like this, based on SF, but not based solely on explosions. I like explosions, don't get me wrong, but some of the more thought-provoking SF ideas out there should be made as well. This is one such, and now I seriously want to read the graphic novels to see what they did with those. I'll also be getting this on DVD when it comes out.
So, nearly the entire world is living through surrogates. It seems safe, until someone kills one of the surrogates with a new weapon that also kills the user, which isn't supposed to happen (if your surrogate gets "killed," the user is supposed to be safe due to failsafes built into the system). So the movie plot begins with this murder and spins out from there. I like the entire concept, and I like that the movie wasn't, in the end, really about that concept. The surrogates idea was simply the backdrop for not only a world/idea plot, but also involved a character arc for the main character and a few of those around him. Granted, the world/idea plot and the character plot weren't especially complex, but I don't mind that as long as they're engaging. And I thought this was engaging. I was most involved in the movie when it dealt with the character played by Bruce Willis and the realizations he comes to as it progresses.
Overall, I liked the movie and I'm glad I went. Hollywood needs to make more movies like this, based on SF, but not based solely on explosions. I like explosions, don't get me wrong, but some of the more thought-provoking SF ideas out there should be made as well. This is one such, and now I seriously want to read the graphic novels to see what they did with those. I'll also be getting this on DVD when it comes out.
