I seem to be seeing more and more films both in the theater and on Blu-ray that have one thing very much in common, good premises and poor execution from the printed page to screen. One has to wonder whether there is a shortage of talented screenwriters in Hollywood or just too many lazy ones or studios who are more interested in churning out films for the sake of profit rather then spending the money to do things right. I was reminded of this with all of the snafus around the forthcoming Spiderman 4 feature. I guess the bean counters at Sony learned nothing from Spiderman 3. Unfortunately, the subject of today’s review, while long on promise as well as premise, comes up a bit short in the execution department as well.

Film 

I really had high hopes for this film. It is based on a 5-part graphic novel penned by Robert Vanditti and illustrated by Brett Weldele and has a very interesting premise. What if you could lead your life through a surrogate or robot is you will? You wouldn’t ever have to leave your home, could look forever young, vibrant or completely different if you want. Experiencing life in a way that you wouldn’t be able to do yourself. Obviously, there would be serious downsides to that, laying around on a chair all day, hooked into a computer, never experiencing the warmth of the sun, the wind or the touch of another human. We see in our own lives how the web can be addicting to some. What if you could actually run your life, make money, go out, all while tethered to the web? Well, that is the premise of this film. While the premise is sound, the writing is a bit weak with some rather plastic looking performances in more ways than one.

The film stars Bruce Willis as Tom Greer an FBI agent who fights crime through his surrogate who looks younger than him with a full head of hair no less. He performs his job from the “comfort” of his apartment which he shares with his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike), who unlike Tom, can never seem to unhook herself from her surrogate or leave her room. The safety of living your life through surrogates is shattered when two humans are killed when their surrogates are, with the use of some mysterious weapon. Tom seeks out the weapon and the people behind it and uncovers a plot to kill not only all surrogates but most of the human race.

The film has the look and feel of I Robot, even to the point of having James Cromwell play the inventor of the surrogate technology. The film even has a similar sounding score. All during the film I kept thinking, wow I have seen this before. However, while I loved I Robot, I can’t say the same for Surrogates, which lacks the wit, action and pacing of I Robot. Is it a bad film? No and is one that is worth a look, but on the basis of a rental only.

Video 

I was not at all happy with the look of this film at the beginning, as it was filled with clay-faced actors. It seems that in addition to tons of makeup, there was plenty of digital noise reduction applied post production, in an attempt to smooth out the facial imperfections of the actors to make them look more like robots than actual people. With one exception, it is pretty easy to determine who the surrogates are one screen as they are the ones with no facial features. While I understand the reason behind this decision, it is quite distracting. I also noticed a bit of what appeared to me to be digital noise or haze in the early sequences of the film. Fortunately, that all cleared up about 15 minutes or so into the film.

On the plus side, the film has a rather natural looking color palette and deep and stable blacks. In the scenes dealing with real humans rather than surrogates, detail is very good with fine facial details as well as cuts and scrapes, stubble and the like very visible. The same is true for background details as well. In fact, I really liked the look of the second half of the film which was really very impressive. However, the look of the beginning turned me off just enough to drop the overall rating of the look oft he film to a 4 stars out of 5. I just wish the beginning of the film looked as good as the second half.

Audio 

While I have some reservations concerning the video quality, I have none regarding the audio which is excellent in all respects. The sound has excellent dynamics with deep and tight bass. No bloat here at all. The car crashing and gun battles have an amazing sense of realism. In fact, on one sudden side impact accident in the film, I almost felt like I was being knocked of my chair. The overall fidelity is excellent sounding smooth and full with excellent imaging and transparency and without even a hint of harshness or shrillness. Panning effects are done very, very well. The surrounds are used early and aggressively during the entire film, creating an excellent and convincing sense of immersion. In short, this sound design delivers the goods and should really please fans of the film. The sound design was the best aspect of this film by far.

Special Features 

Not surprisingly, the extras here are a bit threadbare but are at least presented in HD. The release is not BD-Live enabled and does not include a digital copy. The extras include a feature audio commentary by director Jonathan Mostow as well as 4 deleted scenes. Also included are two featurettes. The first is “A More Perfect You: The Science of Surrogates” which takes a loom at robot technology today and contains some really interesting advances in robot technology that I was not aware of. The second featurette is entitled “Breaking The Frame: A Graphic Novel Comes to LIfe” which features interviews with author and illustrator of the graphic novel on which the film is based, Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele. Both are worth a look. The final extra is “I Will Not Bow” video by Breaking Benjamin.

Final Thoughts 

There is no doubt that Surrogates falls a bit short of its potential but is is still worth a look but on the basis of a rental only.