It is the idea of Surrogates that is immediately off-putting. In the future, robotics have advanced so everyone can utilize a mechanical double of themselves in day-to-day life. Instead of going to work, you send your surrogate, utilizing your brain to control it.

The futuristic marketing in the background of this story preaches safety as the benefit, which after years of brain-washing seems marginally plausible. However, it is hard to see the benefit. It is not as if you set the surrogate to auto. You are locked into a chair, still working the entire day.

This idea would seem to elicit a connection with obesity or anti-social behavior, yet oddly, every one seems relatively healthy and generally sociable with the exception of two older characters. In fact, the unhealthiest person in the movie, a heavy-set computer engineer, does not use a surrogate.

Surrogates does have some unique ideas. A brief glimpse of how wars are fought, with thousands of soldiers sitting comfortably in a military base controlling their replicas on the battlefield is a great concept. One does question why the enemy would simply not begin a frantic search to find the base and kill the humans inside, but maybe controlling robots has turned off evolutionary logic as well.

Of course, there are more than ideas in Surrogates, including a story that includes an impossibly creepy young Bruce Willis surrogate working one of the first murder cases in an unspecified number of years. Tom Greer (Willis) believes a cult headed by a ridiculous looking Ving Rhames (complete with thick dreadlocks and beard) is at fault.

The investigation leads to Greer losing his robotic half after a spectacular helicopter crash, setting out on foot to reclaim his own humanity and save the world as only Bruce Willis could. Energetic pacing (the film does not reach 90-minutes) keeps the intrigue moving steadily forward, while only partially tapping into the potential of the concept.

Movie  

Surrogates offers a lot to talk about in terms of this AVC encode. Initial scenes, filled with tape-quality stock footage, is acceptable style. Once into the first frames of the film, something goes terribly wrong.

Black crush is simply terrible, merging entire characters with the backgrounds. Faces appear flat, an intentional effect to make the robots stand out from the human characters. In the end, the smoothing, obviously done digitally, is nothing but a distraction. That still fails to explain why flesh tones appear to be out of one of the first-generation colorized films, with a chalk-like color and appearance.

Bright colors, especially red, bleed excessively. Noise is a constant struggle. A weird after-effect of this occurs at 27-minutes, where Bruce Willis and Rosamund Pike’s faces are littered with crawling, off-color artifacts. Everything here seems to take on a neon hue, awfully similar to what happened to the Blu-ray for King Arthur. Even the whites typically appear off.

That is not to say this transfer offers nothing of value. Certain shots of real humans (as compared to humans playing non-humans being controlled by humans… ?) do exhibit exceptional detail. Willis lying in a hospital bed is an immediate stand out, his aging face defined with wrinkles and pores, while his growing beard clearly defines individual hairs. Unfortunately, shots that are allowed to breathe at that level are few.

Video  

Thankfully, the DTS-HD effort does not seem to have undergone the same level of digital manipulation. All action scenes, including the above-mentioned helicopter crash, deliver as expected. Bass, while not all-powerful, is effective at sitting in the mix without being overpowering. When the helicopter hits ground, you feel it. Debris, including showering sands and shattering objects, are whipped into a surround and stereo frenzy, with phenomenal clarity and accuracy.

A motorcycle chase just prior captures movement beautifully, each car accurately represented in their respective channels. Split fronts keep the stereo channels as active as the rears.

Street level ambiance after Willis’ hospital visit is exceptional. Footsteps of passer-bys move front to back, and cars are clearly a present element in the mix. A brief visit to the surrogates factory is surprisingly forceful, loud manufacturing machines creating not only an echo, but a low-end presence as they work.

Audio  

Director Jonathan Mostow provides a solo commentary, followed by a cautionary featurette about how current technology is mirroring what was seen in the film titled A More Perfect You. Breaking the Frame is a featurette on the graphic novel that inspired the movie, spliced in with animated scenes from the book. Four deleted scenes, a music video, and trailers (including a great look at the upcoming Tron sequel) finish the disc off.

Extras