Surrogates DVD Review

Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 01.28.2010

They may have well just called it Us, Robots.

Directed by: Jonathon Mostow
Written by: Michael Ferris & John Brancato

Starring:
Bruce Willis - Agent Tom Greer
Radha Mitchell - Agent Jennifer Peters
Rosamund Pike - Maggie Greer
Ving Rhames - The Prophet
Boris Kodjoe - Andrew Stone
Jack Noseworthy - Miles Strickland
James Cromwell - Dr. Lionel Canter
Michael Cudlitz - Colonel Brendan
James Francis Ginty - Canter surrogate
Helena Mattsson - JJ

Domestic Gross: $38,577,772
Worldwide Gross: $60,556,354

DVD Release Date: 1/26/10
Running Time: 89 minutes



Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing images, language, sexuality and a drug-related scene.

Graphic novels have become the biggest commodity in Hollywood. While the term "graphic novel" itself may be an egocentric euphemism brought on by marketing gurus at the major comic book companies to hide behind a veneer of maturity, the fact remains that the term has become commonly accepted to mean a non-spandex oriented story told in a comics-illustrated style. The medium's discovery by Hollywood was bound to happen eventually; when superhero-oriented comic books became a hot commodity thanks to the rejuvenated Batman franchise of the 1990's and the X-Men of the 2000's, the film industry was bound to try and find a way to bring the already-cinematic presentations to the big screen. One of those that attempted to make the translation was Surrogates. Starring Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell and directed by Jonathon Mostow (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines), the film released in September but was met by middling reviews and audience apathy. It failed to recoup its $80 million budget during its theatrical run and now, Touchstone is releasing it on DVD in the hopes that it can make up what was left over after a $60 million worldwide gross.

The Movie

The film stars Willis and Mitchell as FBI Agents Tom Greers and Jennifer Peters in the year 2017. In the last seven years, the invention of remotely-controlled robotic bodies—aka the surrogates of which the title speaks—have resulted in major changes to the way the world works. People now spend their entire lives in their homes and use their surrogates (or "surries" as they are colloquially known) to handle all their daily tasks and even recreations. As a result the world is a peaceful place, free of crime and even pain. However a substantial minority, known as Dreads, have rejected the isolation of experiencing life through surrogates and live their life in a technologically-free fashion, sectioned off from society in something akin to Native American reservations. When a couple are killed outside of a nightclub through a weapon aimed at their surrogates and one of them happens to be the son of surrogates inventor Lionel Canter (Cromwell), Greers and Peters are brought in to investigate the first homicide in years. Greer's quest to discover the truth behind the murders brings him into contact with the Dreads and their mysterious leader the Prophet (Rhames), and eventually to a secret plan from an unlikely source that may spell disaster for all mankind.

Surrogates was adapted for the big screen by Michael Ferris & John Brancato, the screenwriting pair that brought us The Net, The Game, Terminator 3 and Catwoman, not to mention writing the original screenplay to last year's Terminator Salvation. Brancato and Ferris have had their share of ups and downs as a writing duo, and their script for this film—based on the graphic novel of the same name by Robert Vendetti—is far from their worst work. Nor is it their best either, as this fails to hold the cinematic interest that The Game conjured up. In establishing their setting, the writing duo creates some interesting elements and tries to translate the theme of being addicted to the idea of anonymity and superficial superiority that the source portrayed. Their success in the latter is limited by an attempt to make the story more cinematic and by a distinct feeling of unoriginality. We've seen stories like this before and they've been done both better and worse.

This is certainly a better story and film than last year's Gamer which tried to get across the same themes, but the story seems more interested in showy action scenes than really thinking through its concept and asking some serious questions about the morality of the setting. If a world in which no one goes outside and there is no real danger exists, then what about those elements who would push things to the extreme? There's still law enforcement of course, but when the worst charges you can find are theft and vandalism of a surrogate than what's stopping people from going on a "killing" rampage just to see what it's like? And what about that addiction to superficiality and emotional isolation? That latter theme exists throughout the novel but it isn't fully explored. These are themes that are handled nicely and with more gravity in Katherine Bigelow's 1995 tech-noir film Strange Days, whereas here they're just lightly touched on. And what of the potential abuses inherent in a world where people can be effectively shut down by "buffering" them, as Devin Ratray's non-surrogate using FBI tech guy explains? This is a theme that could have been nicely explored, especially in a film that could use some extra padding to its eighty-nine minute running time, but the story seems more focused on moving quickly through the mystery so we can get it over and one with.

Some of the problems in the script are amplified by Mostow's direction. The filmmaker has a history of noble intentions but ultimately flawed results; the third Terminator film was an enjoyable enough project but earlier projects such as U-571 and Breakdown didn't manage the same. Here, Mostow seems unsure of how to handle the film and instead borrows liberally from other films for his look and tone, particularly I, Robot with its color scheme of cool blues and its telling of a cerebral science fiction story as an action set piece. At least he chose a good (if underrated) film to borrow from, though that doesn't change the fact that this film's look and style are distinctly unoriginal. The look of the surrogates under Mostow and his effects team are so close to The Stepford Wives that it's impossible to deny the influence. Mostow does handle the action scenes very nicely, and they are shot and edited confidently from a man who knows how action should look. Those scenes help the movie come alive, but where Mostow succeeds most is when we get out of the world of the surrogates and follow Greer around outside of a safe robotic body to pilot. Unplugging and making one's way through the world after years of hiding safely behind a surrogate exterior would be a terrifying thing and Mostow helps portray that quite effectively. There is enough here from the director to even out the good and the bad, but only just.

The acting is rather hit and miss, but fortunately it is mostly hits. Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell are fine as the two detectives, giving stylized performances like the rest of the cast to handle portraying the surrogates, and Willis handles his human aspect well. Devin Ratray is good as the FBI Surrogates surveillance guy who's never had and doesn't want a surrogate. James Cromwell brings gravity to his role, but it is unfortunate that he adds to the comparisons to I, Robot by virtue of his presence in the film. Boris Kodjoe is forgettable as Willis's and Mitchell's superior officer, Ving Rhames is underused and out of place underneath a bad wig as the Prophet and there is little to Rosamund Pike's role as Greer's wife. The acting is all fine enough for what is asked of them, though some better work could have helped lift the film a bit more.

Ultimately, Surrogates is not a bad film. It is certainly nowhere near the vicinity of great or even hits the mark of being a good film, but there's nothing offensively bad about it. The key problem with the film lies in what it could have been. Mostow and company could have built a movie that touched on the more serious questions it raised while still providing the action sequences and interesting murder mystery. By failing to do so, it ends up becoming something that can at best be enjoyed while it's on and then promptly forgotten. It doesn't drive viewers away, but it doesn't make a case for being remembered for very long either.

Film Rating: 6.0

The Video

Disney, perhaps due to the underperformance of Surrogates, has unfortunately not put a lot of effort into providing a worthwhile video transfer for the film. The night-time scenes in the 2.40:1 widescreen video transfer—enhanced for 19x9 televisions, as is the norm these days—are the most obviously flawed, as compression issues result in distortion around the more shadowy parts of the screen. This is not nearly as apparent during scenes of sharper contrast as delineation is relatively sharp; it is only when light and dark blend together that we find noticeable problems. Mostow's color palette of cool blues that dominates most of the film plays out well enough, except that whatever color correction has been done to the film makes skin tones too bright and garish by comparison. This may have been a creative choice to emphasize the falseness of the surrogates, except that it looks the same when we see the flesh-and-blood humans as well. The overall result is a mediocre look to a film whose strongest aspect was the visuals, which is highly disappointing.

Video Rating: 5.0

The Audio

The 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround audio track for the movie is much stronger than the video presentation. The track is quite pervasive and makes good use of all possible channels and it brings the viewer into the movie very solidly. When the movie shifts into high gear for the action scenes the bass rumbles nicely, and a scene when Greer ventures out without the use of his surrogate is nicely transitioned to home video by enhancing the sounds to highlight his discomfort and anxiety. The dialogue is balanced nicely with the ambient sound effects and Richard Marvin's score. Had the video transfer team matched the audio's quality, Disney might have really had something here. A French and Spanish 5.1 track are also available; subtitles are in English, French and Spanish.

Audio Rating: 8.5

The Packaging

Surrogates comes in a standard snap case featuring an image similar to the theatrical movie poster, shifted from the original cool blue to a much more attention-grabbing yellow. Unfortunately the image does little to tell the prospective buyer anything about the film other than that Bruce Willis is in it. The DVD itself is the standard silver lettering on gray background that speaks to a lack of effort in making it look distinctive. The DVD main menu is built like nodes of computer data transmitting quick cut-scenes from the film and the menus are easy to navigate.

Packaging Rating: 6.0

Special Features

Audio Commentary: This audio commentary track by director Mostow was recorded before the film's theatrical release, and as such doesn't have a chance to include Mostow's thoughts about what might have gone wrong that it failed to connect with audiences. On the other hand, it means that there's no bitterness, and Mostow is able to thoroughly focus on the production details and what it was like to bring the story to the big screen. Mostow makes a good listen as he talks with obvious appreciation for his film, and he covers both the rigors of taking a graphic novel and making a feature film out of it and anecdotes about the visual effects, filming and such. The track seems to taper out a couple of times due to a lack of anyone for Mostow to play off of, but for the most part he keeps it interesting and it's well worth checking out.

"I Will Not Bow" Music Video: (3:48) This is a music video for Breaking Benjamin's song from the soundtrack, and plays exactly like every music video for a song from a soundtrack; the band performs in a way that is very tangentially related to the movie while clips of the film are interspersed throughout the video. For those who are fans of the band, the song is decent but the video is largely forgettable for just about anyone and certainly doesn't make up for a lack of other special features.

Sneak Peeks: (12:17) There are a host of trailers presented, both airing when before and accessible from the main menu. We have trailers for the ESPN Films documentary X-Games: The Movie, the first season of Gary Unmarried starring Jay Mohr, Lost: Season Five, the preview for Tron Legacy that aired at Comic-Con. After that are trailers for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, Clive Owen's just-out-on-DVD The Boys are Back, Robert DeNiro's Everybody's Fine and a commercial for Disney on Blu-Ray.

Special Features Rating: 3.5

The 411: The greatest crime of Jonathon Mostow's sci-fi murder mystery Surrogates is that it could have been so much more. The story raises a lot of interesting more and sociological questions about its world, where people exist in a state of isolation from life while their protective surrogate robots do the living for them. The murder mystery aspect is interesting and the action pieces are well-staged, but the failure to truly answer or explore most of those questions drags the film down to a much lower level than it could have been. An obvious reliance on the conventions that previous like films such as I, Robot have established doesn't help, and the lack of originality shows. Decent-to-good acting by Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Devin Ratray, James Cromwell and others are offset by some lackluster performances by the rest of the cast to create a tolerable but forgettable film. The poor video transfer sucks a lot of the quality out of the DVD presentation and the audio track is very good but doesn't completely make up for that. Add in a distinct dearth of special features and the end result is a DVD that is worth a rental, but not much more.

Final Score:  5.0   [ Not So Good ]