In the year 2017, humans live in near isolation, rarely leaving the safety and comfort of their own homes. This is all due to a breakthrough in modern technology - robotic human bodies controlled remotely by the controller and known as 'Surrogates', designed as faster, more agile and attractive versions of the users. These Surrogates allow humans to not feel pain no matter what actions take place, and are built under the mundane slogan 'Its Life . . . But Better'. Because of this, crime has dropped down to a record breaking 1% of the original number, but not everyone agrees. These rebels have gone so far as to barricade themselves of from the rest of the world. The film opens with the murder of two people, one the son of the disgraced creater of the first Surrogates, killed via their Surrogates - something unknown in the world of Surrogacy and using as new weapon. FBI Agents Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) and Agent Peters (Radha Mitchell) must work together to destroy this weapon before the killer wipes Surrogacy from the face of the earth.

Based on the largely unknown comic book series, Surrogates is definately an intriguing film with its deeper question - Will mankind keep it humanity as technology rises?. However despite some intersting ideas, the film comes off as shallow and lazy with a plot littered with cliches and miss-matched acting. It tries to have the social commentary of District 9 with the action of Transformers, but ends up a forgettable mess that offers no justification of its existence. With such an interesting plot device and strong potential Director John Mostow really deserves to be applauded for what a mess he made of the whole thing and the way he watered down the level of repectable film-making that other action/sci-fi directors are known for to the point where the whole film is unbearable. Then again, what did I expect from the Director of the satanically bad Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines being given $80 Million to make this load of utter garbage.

The plot, as mentioned above, is incredibally basic. The cliches visible throughout the film really stand out, by far the most annoying of which being Bruce Willis's character of Tom Greer. He is, essentially, an agingman on the force who doesnt quite approve the use of said new technology and who's marriage has slowly broken down from his grieving of his dead son. Greer is more or less Will Smiths character from I,Robot without the quality or interest. The plot is so predictable that within twenty minutes I had already guessed the 'Giant Plot Twist' at the end of the film. Bruce Willis is little more then decent in his role, although he hasnt built his performance any more then the 2005 film Hostage. Radha Mitchell is very bizarre in her performance as Agent Peters, as she veers wildly between acting like a complete robot to a regular human whilst still plugged into her Surrogate. This is especially odd since Mitchell's last performances were fairly solid compared to her role in Surrogates and shows Mostow's inability to direct a simple cast.

This issue faces the rest of the supporting cast, as Mostow obviously didnt put enough direction into his actors performance. This issue really ditracts from the rest of the film and the entertainment that you may- or probably wont be - having whilst watching. This is even more noticeable in a very peculiar club scene at the beginning of the film, where all the Surrogates dance like complete robots. This makes the rest of the film incredibally laughable. Another thing that really shows the poor direction and use of stereotypesin the film is the portrayal of the rebels against the use of Surrogates as Religious Shotgun Wielding Hicks and Hippies. This is highlighted by the fact that these rebels are lead by 'The Prophet' (Ving Rhames). It was a completely unnecessary and offensive in many ways to the religious community who may be against this technology, as if Surrogates were actually designed a lot more then 1% of all people would have condoned the usage of Surrogates in everyday life.

The special effects in Surrogates are incredibally mediocre at times. The action scenes in Surrogates could have been a lot better and its really dispicable considering that the film has an $80 Million budget and comparing it to the mastery made from District 9's insignificent $30 Million budget. The action scenes look incredibally fake for the most part, especially a scene at the start of the film when a car flips over and slams into a nightclub wall. Also, the use of the illegal weapon being used to kill the people hooked up to their Surrogates looks completely animated and fake. Its a bright blue flash of light that ruins the rest of the action in the film. The Surrogates design looks okay, but the use of a splashing green liquid spurting from their wounds when they are injured was an incredibally odd addition to the Surrogates design. Its strange considering that Terminator 3's robotic design was a lot more dynamic then that of Surrogates and could have been handled much better if Mostow had not tryed this new tack of Robotic Film Design.

Surrogates could have been a great sci-fi action film. However, the film ends up being a lazy mess of poorly designed and mediocre action scenes, terrible acting that doesnt seem to know what form it should take on and a cliched and boring plot. The characters are really boring and dull and adds to the overall poor quality of the film. Honestly, if a stronger Director had been chosen to adapt this comic book from its former source material the film could have gone down as one of the best film of 2009, and also one of the most thought provocing films in our generation in the sci-fi genre such as District 9 or Moon. This could have been done better if Mostow had put some actual effort into his lazy script and actually taken advantage of the potential he had with the films deeper question. The studios use of providing an $80 Million budget for the film was simply disgusting and the films grose of $52 Million makes the effort all the more laughable to look at. Theres definately no reason to watch Surrogates, and only the least critical and impressed-by-any-flashes-of-action type of person will find it to be a serviceable action movie for the winter/spring season.

Overall : 2/5 Stars.