Surrogates - Blu-ray Review

'Willis ends up in his quiet and charisma-less malaise that seems to effect all of his characters'

Treading incredibly closely to I, Robot, by virtue of much more than sharing a cast member (James Cromwell) playing a similar role, Surrogates is a fairly fun science fiction romp that never really threatens to become anywhere near exciting enough.

With elements that also borrow heavily from The 6th Day, it's clear that graphic novel author Robert Venditti know his sci-fi but his tale of humans using avatar-like creations (the titular Surrogates) to move around the world never feels expanded enough to truly fly and a muckily-handled sub-plot about Greer's (Bruce Willis) son feels like it was only tacked on to extend the run time.

Willis, for whom this is basically a star vehicle, is as watchable as ever, despite the unnerving effect of having to watch his smooth-skinned, ultra photoshopped surrogate for at least half of the film. There's nothing to stretch him out of his comfort zone here though and soon he ends up in his quiet and charisma-less malaise that seems to effect all of his characters, with the exception of John McClane. Police partner Radha Mitchell gets little to do and late developments leave her looking slightly miss-cast leaving Rosamund Pike as the only acting highlight, the British actress quickly carving a niche out for herself as a great character actor having come to the fore all of eight years ago in Die Another Day.

Ultimately, there's too many elements that don't work (Ving Rhames as The Prophet, the unsatisfactory eventual villain, the impersonal implications of some of the plot developments) to heartily recommend this, leaving it instead firmly in the middle of 'average', yet another thing it shares in common with the two productions it borrows most heavily from.

Look further...

'Surrogates is a solid actioner with some great ideas, a recycled plot and an above-average director' - The M0vie Blog