movies: surrogates

Tonight's movie, Surrogates, posits a number of really interesting questions...

In a world where the majority of people use robot surrogates to go about their everyday lives, surrogates that look perfect and are reasonably indestructible, does it really seem like there would be no discrimination and a decrease in violent crime? The crime part I can almost buy.... maybe they're talking about person on person crime, not robot on robot (and one of the cops does say that destroying a surrogate is "simple vandalism"). But the discrimination? In a world where everybody is airbrushed and plastic?

Especially because there were a variety of surrogate models, from the basic unit on up... you would think that people who didn't have the latest, greatest, most realistic looking surrogates would be discriminated against. And what's to stop people from remaining racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. I'd think that it would be like the internet to a certain degree... people removed from the reality of their actions would be more likely to say or do things that they wouldn't necessarily say or do to a real person.

And if you happen to use a surrogate that looks nothing like you (I'm guessing the gay club scene would become even more homogenised in a world where surrogates existed... or else everybody would be playing a role... and nobody would be over 30), would it always be in the back of your mind that everybody else you encounter might not actually look like they appear to look... so could you trust anyone? Or is it just the extreme end of things like online chat rooms and Second Life... where you can pretend to be anyone you want... except with a surrogate you could go out into the world.

Then you have the money side of things. These are precision instruments that would be custom designed in a large amount of cases and require a big, hitech looking "control couch" to run. How much would a thing like that cost? As much as a car? As much as a luxury car? As much as a house? So what about the people who just flat out couldn't afford a surrogate? Do they have some sort of weekly rental program?

So then that automatically creates an underclass of low socio-economic citizens who don't have access to surrogates.

And you know what... with the potential exception of that last point (and only in the most fleeting of ways), the movie doesn't actually address a single one of those questions.

But then it's not supposed to be a documentary into this "brave new world" of surrogates... it's supposed to be entertainment. And like the vast majority of Bruce Willis movies, it lives up to it's promise, if not it's potential.

It's only a short movie though... it's just under an hour and a half, and I have to say that it does kinda feel it... in fact, it never really ramps up to what it possibly could have done. I was just getting involved in the whole story and suddenly they're revealing villains and plot twists all over the joint, and then it's all over.

It was also interesting the way they chose to handle the visual differences between the surrogates and the real versions of the characters... for most of the women it just meant that the surrogates had glamour makeup and perfect hair, whereas they deliberately uglied them up for the real versions. A number of the men however, they went a little overboard with the digital airbrush... both Bruce's character and the one played by Boris Kodjoe end up looking somewhat plastic and fake, especially Bruce. It was a relief when he started running around as a flesh and blood person instead of this plastic looking surrogate with a blonde wig and questionable eyebrows.

But for what it is... a Bruce Willis sci-fi action movie... it's actually not too bad. And it did make me think, which is sometimes rare at the movies. I just wish that it had been a little bit more than it was, because as it stands, it was enjoyable, but mostly forgettable.

yani's rating: 2 'surries' out of 5