Tech Gone Wrong

More and more movies and TV shows are going on and on about how technology has made real human interaction virtually a thing of the past. Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking tools have allowed us to connect with friends and family that are far away from us, but they also tend to keep us indoors rather than meeting each other face-to-face. Video games like “The Sims” and other role-playing games allow us to live virtual lives even as our own real lives take a backseat.

Bruce Willis’ latest film Surrogates takes that to a whole new level as it proposes that people in the future will be staying almost completely indoors while realistic robot “surrogates” live their lives for them. It’s been 15 years since the last murder has been committed worldwide, but when the son of surrogates creator Dr. Lionel Canter (James Cromwell) is killed with a surrogate-killing weapon, it’s up to FBI agent Tom Greer (Willis) to find out who’s behind the killing and why. A group of surrogate-hating humans led by the enigmatic man known merely as “The Prophet” (Ving Rhames) has created reservations dedicated to living technology-free. When Greer’s look-alike surrogate chases the suspected murderer onto the Dread Reservation and is hit with the Overide Devic weapon, the real Greer has to step out into the real world to find the killers.

Like the recent film Gamer, this motion picture offers a commentary on how even in today’s world, too many people are living virtually online instead of in the real world. I really liked how the filmmakers made the surrogates’ skin look near-perfect, with no pores or blemishes on their faces while regular humans had all sorts of defects on their skin. This helped show the difference between the synthetic in contrast to the real. Willis’ Greer portrays another cop who seems to have screwed up his relationship with a spouse but whose dedication to justice and beating the bad guy ends up still making him a hero. In that sense, it’s not much different from his more famous role as John McClaine in the Die Hard series, but when Greer tries to reach out to his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike), we remember that Willis does have acting chops, they just tend to be forgotten due to his roles in action flicks.

This film is based on the graphic novel “The Surrogates” written by Robert Vendetti and drawn by Brett Weldele. Although I’m not familiar with the source material, the creators supposedly came up with the concept for the comic after reading about numerous individuals who lost their spouses or their jobs due to their addiction to the internet and their online personas. Thus, one would see why both the graphic novel and film have roots in today’s technology-loving world.

I for one enjoyed the pace and concept of this film. Willis is generally a likable actor, and the contrast between his acting as a synthetic, nearly-indestructible surrogate and a flesh-and-bone human almost has him playing a dual role. Director Jonathan Mostow’s film has good pacing and the whodunit element coupled with the technology-versus-humanity subplot kept things interesting. I also liked how the surrogates often showed ideal versions of the humans who were either emotionally unstable, physically defective, or just enjoyed living vicariously through someone else rather than actually living their lives. I realize that a lot of people hated this picture, but I’m not one of them.