Surrogates

Surrogates was one of those movies that I saw the trailer, and immediately said, "I want to see that movie." I love when movies explore the idea of cool futuristic technology, and Surrogates looked fun and exciting. But, time went on, and I never saw it. Part of the reason I never saw is that my eyes are bigger than my stomach when it comes to movies, and I rarely watch all the ones I want to see. The other reason is that it received less than lustrous reviews. However, I couple of days ago, I was procrastinating, as I often do, and I saw that it was on Netflix streaming. So, I finally got to see Surrogates. So, was it all that I expected from my initial viewing of the trailer? Nope. It was a big ole disappointment.

The plot for Surrogates could best be described as blah. I found myself pressing pause a multitude of times throughout the movie, and at one point, I thought about not even finishing it. In fact, halfway through the movie, I began to wonder if there even was a plot. When I finally realized that there was a plot, I just didn't care about it. I could pretty much follow what was going on, but honestly, I'd have a hard time repeating it back to you. That's part of the reason why there's not recap in this review. *This next part might be slightly spoilery. Be cautioned.* From seeing the trailer, I wanted some huge worldwide evil scheme to be part of the plot. While there was some threat of worldwide catastrophe, it was no where near as sinister as I hoped.

That's not to say, however, that there was nothing redeeming to Surrogates. Part of the reason why Surrogate was so disappointing is that it actually had a lot of potential. The world that was created for the movie was actually extremely interesting, and the parts that focused on that, rather than the plot, were the movie's shining moments. Particularly, I found the interactions between the lead character, whose name I can't remember and am too lazy to imdb at the moment, and his wife to be fascinating and thought-provoking. Actually, the whole concept contained in the movie was thought provoking. The movie made me ponder about the morality of the concept of a surrogate. Because of this, I actually thought that the movie's first couple of minutes, in which we see a series of fake news reports about the development of surrogates, was among its most interesting content. I was also impressed at some of the implications of surrogates that the movie showed. Particularly, I thought it was interesting how they were shown as being used as soldiers that made war almost more like a video game than an actual war.

So, if you're bored and have nothing to do, you might want to watch at least a little bit of surrogates because it has a truly fascinating concept. However, it's far from a great movie, and to call it a good movie would be a stretch. It's a mediocre movie that sadly does not reach its full potential.