Just finished watching Surrogates. Here is my take. CAUTION: MINOR SPOILERS, BUT NOTHING THAT WILL RUIN THE MOVIE FOR YOU.
Overall, this movie was good, but the whole time I was watching it I got the strange feeling I had seen this before. A few years back, a movie came out called I, Robot with Will Smith. Ever hear of it? I won't go into the I, Robot plot because I'm sure everyone on CBM has seen it or heard of it already. Well, Surrogates was a lot like that one in many ways.
The basic plot is this:
James Cromwell creates robots to help people in thier everyday lives. (yes JAMES CROMWELL, told you it was like I, Robot). The twist is that everyone uses a "surrogate" to basically replace thier lives. They stay safe at home connected to the surrogates while they go out in the word and have wanton sex (sweet) and adventure with out any harm to the user. As a result of this crime is down 99%. There hasnt been a murder in several years. Therefore, the movie begins with.....wait for it.....a murder. Someone kills a surrogate, and at the same time the person connected to it dies. Enter Bruce Willis's FBI agent who begins the investigation. Several twists and turns and some conspiracies later and...well you get the picture. Some of the twists were obvious, some not so much. The ending was a little cheesy but not over-the-top cheesy.
For those of you expecting the wise-cracking action Bruce Willis you will be heavily dissapointed. The movie has basically two chase scenes that are less than five minutes and that is it for the action. Willis here plays the type of character he played in the 6th Sense or Unbreakable (in fact this movie reminded me of Unbreakable, as well). The quite subdued Willis going through personal tragedy and dealing with large issues in his life and the world. In this case, it is a disconnect with his wife (pun intended) who is basically addicted to her surrogate, and personal tragedy involving a young child (another similarity to the Will Smith I, Robot character). He does a fine job as always. The other performances are also fine, except Ving Rhames whose character was cliched and over the top.
Bottom line: anyone expecting an "action sci-fi movie" will be dissapointed. It does vary from I, Robot in that respect. This is more of a detective conspiracy movie fused with a psychological societal metaphor movie. It has the typical stuff about technology making us less human, and disconnecting us from society and other humans. (the world of warcraft people know what im talking about). On that level it was very satisfactory to me. If you enjoy that type of movie this one is for you.
Overall, I'd give it a 3 out of 5 stars. Not bad for a sci-fi robot movie without Will Smith.