RETRO REVIEW: BEETLE TAKES A TRIP INTO THE FUTURE WITH SURROGATES

Imagine a world where you can live your life through a remote controlled robot. You can be anything you want to be, change your appearance, your sex, even your skin color. You could jump off tall buildings, get hit by a speeding car, even lose your arm and feel no pain whatsoever. This is the fascinating world that the film Surrogates inhabits.

Surrogates takes place in the near future where advances in technology have made it possible for over 98% of the general population to live their lives through the safety of a robot, called a Surrogate, that you can design yourself and then remotely control from the comfort of a chair. The Surrogate can perform amazing feats with absolutely no harm done to the controller. The company responsible for the creation of the Surrogates, Virtual Self Industries (VSI), has become somewhat of a monopoly as Surrogates have taken over almost every aspect of the daily life.

Yes, things seem to be perfect in the future...until someone finds a way to effectively kill a Surrogate and its controller, thus creating a big problem for VSI and the general public. Surrogates is a fable about technology, its use in soceity, and our unhealthy dependence on it. Filled with engrossing themes and decent performances by Bruce Willis as the detective assigned to sort the whole mess out, Rhada Mitchell as his partner, and Rosamund Pike as his wife. Surrogates is an interesting outing in the sci-fi genre.

Surrogates is a well-made film that does a pretty good job at getting its message about technology and its ability to help or hurt across to the audience. Probably my only complaint about the film is that it doesn't have much action in it, but when it does occur, the action is of such a high quality and its so cool, that I'm willing to forgive that there wasn't as much as there could have been.

Supported by its interesting message, decent if not a bit shakey performances by its leads, and its fascinating portrayal of a future that could be, Surrogates is a must own film that is almost guarenteed to give you enough to think about for a few weeks after the final credits roll.

3/5