Movie Primer: Surrogates

This is a short primer for science fiction action thriller Surrogates. This film will have its wide release on September 25th, 2009. The trailer for this film can be found at http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/surrogates/

The Plot: In the future there will be robots, but apparently they don't transform or want to destroy humanity. Instead they will be fitter, better looking versions of ourselves who will go out and do things for us so that we can stay at home. This real life Sims game is the setting for the movie. Most people now don't leave the house and so murder is pretty much a thing of the past. That is until a college student who helped design the robots is killed. Now two FBI agents must not only solve a very tricky murder but they have to leave the apartment to do so.

Star Power: The main hero of the story is Bruce Willis sporty a frosty goatee. Radha Mitchell plays the other FBI agent. Radha is not a name most folks will recognize but she has been making movies for years. She was the lead in Silent Hill and played the mother in Man on Fire. Ving Rames also is in the film as a cult leader known as The Prophet.

Behind the Screen: Robots should be nothing new to the director of Surrogates. Jonathan Mostov is the director and his last movie was Terminator 3. The screenplay was adapted from a comic of the same name. The writing duo of John Brancato and Michael Ferris handled the adaptation. They also wrote Terminator 3 and other films like The Game and The Net. Brickyard VFX handled the visual effects for the film.

What to expect: The concept behind this movie makes it seem like a head-trip. There is defiantly some commentary going on with this movie about online reality. A world with robots that look better than you but you can feel what they fell. It's like Second Life or the Sims only better. It's a pretty interesting setting to build a movie around but after watching the trailer I think in the end the focus will be on the action. Like many films before it, in the end the point of this movie seems to be Bruce Willis saving the day. That's not a bad formula for a movie but it has also been done a whole bunch. In the end I think this movie will have more to offer in potential than in actual delivery.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/
http://www.apple.com/trailers/touchstone/surrogates/