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Monday, September 28, 2009

Perfect Bodies

I had wanted to see Surrogates since I first saw the trailer a few months ago. The movie, directed by Jonathan Mostow, is based on a comic book published by Top Shelf that I have never read, and that, judging from the artwork, I never will. The movie, however, was a different matter altogether, because it looked great, even though it was written by the same people who inflicted Terminator 3, Catwoman and Terminator Salvation upon us. That made me a little bit nervous, but I was willing to take my chances.

Bruce Willis and Rhada Mitchell star as FBI agents in this futuristic tale in which humans interact with each other through surrogates. It is like using Facebook and texting but taken to the Nth power. People stay home all day long and send their surrogates to work. But it's not just that. These people barely ever unplug and leave their control stations. When they want to go out, they do so through their surrogates. When they want to make out, they do so through their machines. When they go shopping, it is their robots they send. There is no human contact anymore, and everyone can be whoever they want to be, look the way they want to look (ie, perfect skin, perfect boobs, perfect hair), and act the way they want to act. There's barely any crime anymore, and everyone is happy. Or are they?

If this sounds unsettlingly familiar is because it is. This is the Internet taken to the extreme, the current communications technology amped up to its ridiculous maximum, and our humanity dehumanized to the fullest. Is this where we're headed?

Social commentary aside, Surrogates is a crime story. Somebody is killing people through their surrogates, something that should be impossible but that it is happening all the same. Agents Greer (Willis) and Peters (Mitchell) get involved in this investigation in which nothing and (especially) nobody is what they seem, and their struggles and adventures kept me interested from beginning to end.

I enjoyed the movie very much, and I certainly recommend it to everyone. And if you have read the comic book, let us know how faithful an adaptation the film was!

6 comments:

Nash said...

Aqui ya han puesto el trailer y la verdad es que tiene buena pinta, aunque eso de que sea los mismos guionistas de semejantes chapuzas ya le esta quitando puntos.
Intentare ir al cine a verla.

Mario Alba said...

Pablo me mandó un email ayer en el que decía que había visto la peli y le había parecido una auténtica basura (y lo pongo en fino). Pero a mí me gustó :)

Nash said...

Entonces creo que me fiare más de Pablo y me esperare las copias de seguridad.

Mario Alba said...

Traidor...

Nash said...

No es que sea un traidor es que tu gusto para las pelis es muy discutible :-) por cierto donde para Pablo, que ya no se pasa a saludar.

Mario Alba said...

Lo que tú digas...

Pablo está incomunicado sin internet desde hace varios meses, y espera remediar la situación pronto, que nos echa de menos. A ver si es verdad y volvemos a verle el pelo por el reino de Jhanna, que ya hay ganas.