The Movie
The commercials didn't do the best job of conveying the story of Surrogates, so here goes: A few years from now, the technology will exist for everyday folks to operate sophisticated humanoid surrogates, robots with virtual senses that can essentially live our entire lives for us outside the home. For reasons of vanity, safety and commerce, these surrogates have swept the entire planet, but a growing--and possibly dangerous--faction wants these machines outlawed, rather than see the true nature of humanity fundamentally, irreparably shattered.
From there however, it's a pretty standard murder mystery; as a new secret weapon can apparently fry a surrogate and its connected human owner; investigated by a lawman (Bruce Willis) haunted by a lot of the same old cinematic demons. Surrogates did hold my interest for its hour-and-a-half, but didn't raise any profound new sociological questions or thrill on par with the true greats of the genre.
The Picture
There's a deliberate softness to the 2.40:1 image, most likely to help hide any flaws in the actors' faces and achieve the desired illusion as they portray idealized android duplicates. Colors are a little bit off, likely to convey the weirdness of this skewed future, although I found it somewhat distracting. Grain and noise can also compromise the picture quality, while blacks surrender little-to-no detail unfortunately, which is a major flaw here. Even a long shot of a city skyline can show aliasing on the windows of an office building. Only a handful of shots, set in Boston's technology-free zone, are pleasingly high-definition, which is surprising for a big star vehicle like Surrogates.
The Sound
Action arrives both in brief snippets and in extended setpieces, and each is rendered with a dynamic punch in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. The high-res mix is also used to establish this high-tech environment, including a particularly engaging moment when the camera pushes from an office into a busy factory beyond, and the speakers and subwoofer come alive with all of the heavy metal. Later, the way in which a real human walking down a bustling city street populated by surrogates suddenly seems unsettlingly loud, conveying the character's anxiety. This is definitely a smart if not reference-caliber track.
The Extras
Director Jonathan Mostow explores the themes and challenges of Surrogates in his audio commentary, in addition to his appearance in two featurettes. "A More Perfect You: The Science of Surrogates" (14-and-a-half minutes, HD) ponders if this technology could really take hold, and discusses how this possibility shaped the movie. "Breaking the Frame: A Graphic Novel Comes to Life" is a close, well-produced look at the Top Shelf comic which inspired the film.
Four deleted scenes, six minutes total, are presented in HD, although not quite at finished movie quality. And the "I Will Not Bow" music video by Breaking Benjamin runs about four minutes, encoded as high-bitrate MPEG-2 with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
Final Thoughts
A certain sense of sameness hinders Surrogates, and the audio/video quality and extras here fail to give it that extra spark needed for a truly special Blu-ray rebirth. Bruce Willis and science fiction fans should find it to be a worthy rental, at least.
Product Details
- Actors: Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell, Rosamund Pike, Boris Kodjoe, James Francis Ginty, James Cromwell, Ving Rhames, Jack Noseworthy, Devin Ratray, Michael Cudlitz
- Director: Jonathan Mostow
- Audio Format/Languages: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (English), Dolby Digital 5.1 (French. Spanish)
- Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
- Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Rating: PG-13
- Studio: Touchstone/Disney
- Release Date: January 26, 2010
- Run Time: 89 minutes
- List Price: $39.99
- Extras:
- Audio commentary by Jonathan Mostow
- ""A More Perfect You: The Science of Surrogates"
- "Breaking the Frame: A Graphic Novel Comes to Life"
- Deleted Scenes
- "I Will Not Bow" Music video by Breaking Benjamin
