Smart and provocative, Surrogates is a fascinating science fiction thriller. In a world where humanity is living life remotely through automated robots called “surrogates” the social order becomes threatened when an FBI investigation uncovers the existence of a weapon that has been developed to kill a person through their surrogate. The material is quite rich and does a good job at exploring how technology changes a person and takes away their humanity. And, director Jonathan Mostow crafts at intriguing vision of a future dominated by robotics. Additionally, the cast, which includes Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, and Ving Rhames, give some interesting performances. Some areas of the film are underdeveloped, but overall Surrogates is entertaining and full of intriguing science fiction concepts.
Eh. Probably a 6.5/10. But rounded up because if you like sci-fi thrillers, you'll probably like it. It's got a moral to the story like most sci-fi thrillers do. It's pretty much like most Bruce Willis movies. Not the most fantastic but not really boring. Has a pretty stellar cast. They could've developed their social interactions better, might have given the movie more depth and they certainly had time since it's not even 1.5 hours. An extra half an hour developing the emotional story could've gone a long way, but again sci-fi thriller's don't usually do that so....
hm, it's weird. the movie just 90 minutes long, but some parts are still too long. Anyway, besides the underlying message to the present world, it's a great sci-fi movie with a possible world in which we just sit at home and just let our avatar 'check out the world'.
In the end a good entertaining movie
7/10
The movie has an interesting premise, but the execution didn't turn out so well. The difference between surrogate and real humans is clear-cut (technical limitation, I guess). The character appears out of nowhere, didn't have much time to be developed. And the plot... it's the typical one-big-villain-involved-in-all-things. Still a decent watch though.
The easy review for this film is that it's a poorly executed science fiction story that lacks a good enough budget for its CGI and a weak execution of its story.
But that misses the point almost entirely...
Think of this film along the lines of Demolition Man. You watch it now and it is remarkable how much of the concept has come to be and how prescient it seems.
Take this film in a similar vein...
We're living on the cusp of massive change. We have a parallel financial system being created in crypto-currencies. We have NFTs that are set to revolutionise the sale of music and property. And we have games being played that are social meeting places for the youth of the world where they can own & rent out items within the game world and other related game worlds... Meta universes. Metaverses. And that brings me to this film...
Instead of these surrogates being our presence in the physical world, I think the concept is excellent but inverse to what will actually transpire - we will live part-time in 'metaverses' using surrogates within them.
A world where money can be earned (crypto of course) and brought back in to the real world...
The dream of living and working in two totally different realms is closer to reality than you'd imagine. Think Internet 1998. When does Amazon arrive or has it already? When does the smartphone arrive that catalyses the whole thing into a new dawn...?
But yeah, Bruce Willis doesn't suit that wig. The CG is weak. The plot is predictable. The film is too short. The acting is sub-par. Yet the concept is riveting.
6.5/10
Heavy handed, but surprisingly effective.
On the effects of a remote life, thanks to the interwebs and Uber.
And a surprisingly contemporary ending, with people in their dressing gowns coming out in the streets -- is this what the end of the Covid confinement will look like?
Ps-yes, Bruce Willis is scary with that wig. Get over it. In 10 years we won't even have actors.
This movie didn’t age well.
Surrogates have such an interesting premise...too bad they messed things up.
The story really goes nowhere, and the acting seems forced. It does look and sound very good, but that doesn't really help much when you are a bit bored even though the action scenes.
Surrogates fail to engage on so many levels, so something that is
somewhat interesting when you watch it ends up being totally forgettable when you are done. It's not that it is so incredibly bad, I'm just really disappointed.
I have no idea why I chose to watch this one again. Not really any point in wasting your time with Surrogates. There won't be another rewatch, that's for sure...
What a boring, empty movie.. and it's only 90 minutes long. I even had to check if "Gamer" was released in the same year. Half of the time I thought myself I've seen this already in it (which isn't that much better than this anyways).
The movie is built upon an amazing movie idea. The way the movie executes the idea is horrifying. I do not post shouts/reviews or comments rarely, if ever. I would suggest a movie like "I, Robot" instead. This movie could have been a great success with Willis in it. Reminds me of his previous work in the Die hard series. Even if you have the free time to watch it, DO NOT!!! Again, watch "I, Robot" or even "Real Steel". I knew it wouldn't be great but I also didn't expect it to completely fail as it did.
The source material is better than the movie, but the movie ain't half bad. I wouldn't mind seeing a premium cable show tackle these themes -- oh, wait, Westworld
This movie has always felt like it was weirdly behind its time. It's like one of the last action movies that feel distinctively like 2000s (as in mid-aughts) media to me.
It came out the same year as Nu Trek and the first of the new Sherlock Holmes, but visually has barely anything in common with those movies, even taking into account the disparity in budget.
Maybe a fairer comparison would be to more generic action sci-fi flicks with less distinctive directors like Wolverine or G.I. Joe, but even then its visual language and effects feel outdated. This is why it's so easy to make the connection with I, Robot, besides the (incredibly underdeveloped) themes of humanity and identity — everything about the cinematography and aesthetics of Surrogates is a rip-off of stuff that's at least 5 years old. It even lasts only 90 minutes when blockbusters of 2009 were already all straddling the 2-hour mark.
just think how badly they all smelled right there at the ending scene ;) xD
Review by DRNKMNKYBlockedParentSpoilers2016-10-04T08:55:07Z
Surprisingly, I liked it quite much! As with Lucky Number Slevin, the 6th Sense or the original Die Hard movies I had no high expectations but Bruce surprised me (-: I cannot say why I liked it exactly and I do get that others, on average, would rate it at only 6.7, but I still like it.
I thought I was in for an no-brainer action flick. And while that is true for certain aspects of the film, I really liked the underlining idea of robots, aka Surrogates, linked electronically to its host, allowing them not only to explore their surroundings but literally to live their lives. I think the scenario of Surrogates replacing real people in most of the daily activities is not all that absurd and could be a likely scenario in a technically more advance society (although a world technologically that advanced would look like depicted in the movie). I do agree that the characters would benefit from more depth but I found it not very annoying that they havn’t.
So all in all I would recommend to give Surrogates a try even though the reviews are not that good and see if you like it! As was the case for me, you may like Surrogates much better than say I, Robot!