Sort of wish I had seen Surrogates as a Surrogate

Movie Madness Monday...on a Tuesday. The job search and contract work was crazy yesterday, putting my review on hold. But, here we are (just me really), ready to go and give you the scoop on my latest flick. Oh, by the way. New rating system.

1 pop: don't bother, it's not worth the calories

2 pops: it's okay if you add a LOT of butter

3 pops: glad I got the small size, certainly wouldn't have wanted a bigger bag

4 pops: a little more butter and I would never have left my seat

5 pops: perfection. hot, buttery (extra butter for good measure) and salty. just the way i like it

For those of you who do not know, NC was blessed with about 4 inches of snow over the weekend. For us Southerners who don't get the white stuff very often it was a wonderful treat, one that made me deliriously happy. (It's the small things. And the snow things.) So, homebound as I was, Friday night we snuggled in to watch the new-to-release Bruce Willias flick Surrogates. Here's the setup. This really rich, smart guy who is wheelchair-bound invents a technology where people can essentially live their lives through plastic dolls known as surrogates. But, these aren't your average plastic dolls. When you are hooked up you experience life through the safety of your own home, but you do actually experience what is happening to you through this weird thing on your face. You hook up, off goes your surrogate to live your life through what you want to happen, and then your surrogate comes home and gets plugged in to charge at what point you're real body has to work. Keep in mind, you can pick your surrogate. You could be a 65 year old overweight bald guy and decide to have a surrogate who is a 23 year old smoking hot blonde female. It don't matter. The goal was to let people with disabilities live normal lives, not to create pod people running around the place because people were too scared to live their own real life.

But, then a surrogate is murdered and the murder is actually transferred to the actual person operator. This is bad. Now we're looking at dead surrogates and dead people. Not what wheelchair inventor had hoped for. Bruce Willis is our main character and serves as Mr. Detective for the murder cases. He, of course, rebels and figures it all out. I won't tell you who is behind it all in case you watch the movie.

Overall, it was okay. For me, though, it underdelivered on what could have been a phenomenal flick. I love the concept. Too often in society we fear taking chances and watch life happen around us. If given the chance, I would bet some, if not many, of us would love the opportunity to live certain situations with no fear of what people will think or with no danger. Hell, I'd jump off a building and fly if I knew when I went splat I was fine and could then climb in some other robot body. So the premise is good. But the characters weren't that developed. I lacked an emotional connection with any of them. The big thing for Willis is that his son was killed. And while we know it's supposed to be a big deal that is shaping his life and decisions, we don't really learn anything about the son. Why it was a big deal. How it impacted him. How life was before. The details and characterization just aren't there.

The use of surrogates portrayed as plausible in every day life, gets an A in my book. The execution of surrogates was above average. I believe they were walking around the world and people were at home chillin' in their hooked up pod center. Check.

Severity of the crime portrayed, not good. What, three or four operators die and we have an epidemic on our hands? Not likely. A little blown out of proportion in my opinion.

Inventor character was very dynamic and intriguing. Liked him in a weird, twisted kind of way.

Overall, it's worth seeing on a snowy afternoon. But I'm certainly glad I caught this one on the comfort of my own couch. If you're into this surrogate concept, I personally recommend Gamer (although the ending doesn't feel complete).

Surrogates, gets three pops.